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The Novels of George 
Meredith: A Study 



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The Novels of George 
Meredith: A Study 



BY 

ELMER JAMES BAILEY 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1907 



^ I jf«9A»^Y of CONGRESS 
i Two Onotes ftecelvod 



OCT IS »W 

_ OopyrisrHt Entry 

L_Mi: 1 



Copyright, 1907, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SOMS 

Published October, 1907 




TO 
ALGERNON SIDNEY CRAPSEY 



" Our spoken in protest remains. 
A young generation reaps." 

Meredith : The Empty Purse. 



CONTENTS 
I 

Introduction pa.ge 

Compensation in Literary Renown — The Probable 
Permanence of Meredith's Fame — The Periods of 
His Career 1 

II 

The Apprentice 
Meredith's Early Life — Literary Conditions in Nine- 
teenth Century England before 1860 — The " Poems " 
of 1851 — " The Shaving of Shagpat " — " Farina " . 13 

III 

The Journeyman 
Assimilated Influences — "The Ordeal of Richard 
Feverel " — "Evan Harrington" — " Sandra 
Belloni" — "Vittoria" — "Rhoda Fleming" . . 45 

IV 

The Master -Workm.ajm 
The Period of Free Invention — " The Adventures of 
Harry Richmond" — "Beauchamp's Career" — 
"Short Stories"— "The Egoist" — "The Tragic 
Comedians" 100 

V 

The Master -Workman 
The Period of Concentrated Interest — "Diana of the 
Crossways " — " One of Our Conquerors " — " Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta " — " The Amazing Mar- 
riage"— The Meredith School . . . .148 

VI 

A List of the Characters in Meredith's Novels, with an 
Enumeration of the Chapters in which they appear 193 



THE NOVELS OF GEORGE 
MEREDITH: A STUDY 

I 

INTRODUCTION 

COMPENSATION IN LITERARY RENOWN — THE PROB- 
ABLE PERMANENCE OF MEREDITH's FAME — THE 
PERIODS OF HIS CAREER. 

The fame which comes to an author is no less a 
result of the action of moral law than is the glory 
of a general, the renown of a statesman, or the beati- 
fication of a martyr. Long ago the clear-eyed 
Greeks perceived that although Fortune dealt out 
her gifts with sovereign disregard of merit or desert, 
she was sooner or later followed by Nemesis, the god- 
dess of due proportion, who ruthlessly shattered 
such prosperity as seemed even moderately beyond 
the mean. In the long run, the alternating move- 
ment set up by repeated visitations of the two deities, 
satisfied the mind of Justice; and the balance in 
her steady hand fell to rest. As forces, however. 
Fortune, Nemesis, and Justice did not become power- 
less with the passing of Athens and Rome. On the 
contrary, still existing, they were renamed by later 



2 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

generations; and the law of their harmonious inter- 
play was restated for the benefit of those who had 
ears to hear. Because of this evolution of expres- 
sion, therefore, we no longer talk with the Greek 
philosophers of Nemesis, but we find no difficulty 
whatever in speaking with Emerson and Browning 
of Compensation. 

Nor is this law or principle, in so far as it has to 
do with literary fame, difficult of statement. Baldly 
expressed, it is this: The duration of attention at- 
tracted is in direct ratio to the time consumed in 
awakening adequate appreciation. In other words, 
if renown is the growth of a night, its continuance will 
be hardly more than for a day; but if it is slow in 
coming to maturity, it is likely to be persistent, 
and in some cases permanent. A man, for example, 
writes a story which is immediately looked upon as 
the greatest novel of the year; soon it is advertised 
as being in its tenth, its twelfth, or possibly its six- 
teenth edition. For a time it heads the list of best- 
selling books; then it runs the gauntlet of women's 
clubs; and finally it rushes comet-like on its par- 
abolic course from our sight. On the other hand, 
should a serious-minded, high-purposed author pro- 
duce a book which must needs be read with the mind 
as well as the eye, his readers, at first, are almost 
certain to be few, barely "the remnant," perhaps. 
Nevertheless, if the work is deserving, the audience 
steadily widens; and the author's writing gradually 
ceases to be confused with his wife's, if she happens 
to be a blue-stocking, or with the weaker pro- 
ductions of some man whose pseudonymous name 



INTRODUCTION 3 

misleads those who read as they run. Such a 
writer, furthermore, is occasionally forced to pass 
through the purgatory of having a club formed for 
the purpose of studying his work. But even this 
agony enters as a factor into the problem of due 
compensation, for if an author withstands that test 
of his power, the ellipticity of his orbit is in all proba- 
bility computable; and although he may disappear 
from sight or even from memory for a time, he is likely, 
none the less, to return at intervals with an ever in- 
creasing splendor of renown. 

What Homer was to those who heard him recite 
his poems, no one now can ever know; but critics were 
not wanting even among the Greeks, who proved 
beyond a shadow of doubt, that the blind poet of the 
seven cities was altogether lighter than vanity. Even 
in recent time, it has been shown to the satisfac- 
tion of not a few, that no such man as Homer 
ever lived; yet the Iliad and the Odyssey remain, 
and by the many the iconoclastic critics are re- 
membered chiefly because they raised their un- 
shamed hands against a master. Dante, indeed, had 
literary recognition in his life-time; for as he moved 
through the streets of Ravenna, not only did the 
nobility pay him a certain forced respect, but simple- 
minded mothers gathered their children about them, 
and whispered in trembling awe that the stern-faced, 
silent man had looked upon the sufferings of those 
who writhed in the torments of Hell. Yet when 
Fortune tardily sought out one of the greatest of the 
children of men, she found that, over- weary with the 
climbing of others' stairs, he could draw no comfort 



4 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

from the high regard which she was then wiUing to 
bestow. Shakespeare, too, was no very great man in 
the sight of his friends at the Mermaid Tavern; and 
the best reply which Dryden and Pope could give to 
Milton's inquiry, " What needs my Shakspear for his 
honoured bones?" was to emasculate the most virile 
work which the literary world has known. There 
is little question about these great men now, how- 
ever, for Fame has crowned their work; and in 
compensation for her delay, she has made the wreath 
immortal. 

In the narrower field of English fiction the work- 
ing of the law is no less evident and sure. We are 
in the habit of assuming that Scott, and Thackeray, 
and Dickens, and possibly George Eliot, are our 
greatest novelists; and consequently few of us stop 
to realize, even if we know, that G. P. R. James, and 
Lever, and Bulwer were, at one time, very much 
more eagerly read, and their enduring fame much 
more earnestly prophesied. It cannot, of course, 
be held with truth that our greater novelists received 
no recognition in their day. Indeed, Scott's con- 
temporary popularity and present renown would 
seem to be an exception to the rule, if it could be 
proved that more than a very small number of those 
who now feel compelled to buy his books and to 
speak glibly of his characters, ever sit down even to 
cut the leaves of their purchase. Thackeray and 
Dickens, it should be admitted, both expressed their 
satisfaction in the recognition with which their 
books were met: but neither of them at any time re- 
ceived a modicum of that extravagant praise, or a 



INTRODUCTION 5 

tithe of that large return in money, which is the 
present lot of nearly every man who discovers the 
cheapness of paper and ink, and thinks it his duty 
to bring them together. But this evenness of re- 
nown in the case of Thackeray and of Dickens does 
not confute the principle of compensation as laid 
down. It rather shows the action of the law when 
recognition has been neither too long delayed, nor 
too excessive; for the appreciation which Thackeray 
and Dickens and George Eliot received from their 
contemporary readers was no greater than was due; 
and, therefore, creating no disturbance in the bal- 
ance of justice, it has ever since continued with only 
that occasional fluctuation of interest, which is the 
systole and diastole of living, pulsating renown. 

With the thought of compensation in mind, 
therefore, one feels assurance in predicting the per- 
manent fame of George Meredith, the last of those 
great creative artists whose novels bear nearly the 
same relation to the reign of Victoria as the dramas 
of the sixteenth century bear to that of Elizabeth. 
Beginning to strive for the ear of the public as early 
as 1849, the year in which Dickens was bringing out 
*' David Copperfield," and Thackeray was writing 
"Pendennis," Meredith during the next half century 
placed before the public a dozen novels, several 
volumes of poetry, a few short stories, and occa- 
sionally an essay or a review. In no possible sense 
of the word, however, did he become popular. Edi- 
tors of certain magazines, it is true, had the courage 
to print some of Meredith's work in their pages; but 
such publication seems not to have awakened any 



6 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

distinct appreciation of the contributor, nor to have 
increased the length of the subscription lists; indeed, 
it is said that, now and then, it shortened them. The 
first editions of the novels and of the poems supplied 
the public for years; there was no marked demand 
for them at circulating libraries; and until recently a 
uniform issue of Meredith's works was the last thing 
which a publisher would have considered with the 
expectation of adequate financial return. 

Meredith, however, did not cease to keep the road 
which he had chosen for himself. Publishers and 
editors found that there was no use in tempting, 
friends that there was as little in advising, until, 
finally, nearly all of even those who wished him well 
began to shake their heads and mourn over the in- 
evitable shipwreck which they prophesied must be 
the lot of perverse genius. This stubborn following 
of his own bent by Meredith may have been the chief 
cause of the general indifference with which he was 
regarded; but nevertheless, little as he was known, 
he was not without an audience, and this audience 
endeavored, almost vicariously, it might be said, to 
proselytize readers. Yet, laudatory advertisements, 
enthusiastic review-writing, and affected admiration 
accomplished next to nothing. Despite the appar- 
ent indifference, however, George Meredith and his 
works would not down. Many who reviled him 
openly read him privately, while others, who found 
themselves unable to understand him at all, looked 
superior and "knowing" when his work was men- 
tioned. Meredith was happy, certainly, in escaping 
the lot of Browning who was called upon to endure 



INTRODUCTION 7 

the formation of societies named in his honor, but 
doing him the dishonor of explaining the obvious 
and muddhng the clear. Still, small groups here 
and there did talk about the novelist to good pur- 
pose, and three or four presumably serious studies of 
his work also appeared. These, it is true, were^ome- 
what thin in character; but they served to force the 
conclusion that there must be something worth while 
in George Meredith, since, like Christianity, he was 
able to en-dure in spite of defenders. 

Such was the condition of things toward the close 
of the nineteenth century, when a wide-spread ap- 
preciation of Meredith was seen to be in existence. 
Those who admired him were surprised to learn that 
he had long been the favorite writer of their next- 
door neighbors. Buyers of books ceased to think 
that "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" was a ballad 
bound up in complete editions of Owen Meredith's 
poems; and although some of them never got be- 
yond that knowledge, others, who were readers as 
well as buyers, began to feel that George Meredith 
possessed the qualities which abide. To his admir- 
ers this long delay in the general recognition of his 
genius has been a source of regret; but, on the whole, 
perhaps it is best. The tardy appreciation of Mere- 
dith means, if the law of compensation holds, that his 
present repute must persist. There has been no 
rocket-like flight, accompanied with pyrotechnic 
whizzings; but there has been, it is now evident, a 
steady forward movement, which has resulted in the 
capture and possibly the permanent occupation of 
one of the higher citadels of renown. In other 



8 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

words, the probable compensation of George Mere- 
dith's long wait for adequate recognition is endur- 
ing fame. 

Meredith's insistence upon ordering his methods 
and plans to suit himself has often been the subject 
of comment on the part of the critic; but while such 
insistence must be admitted, it should not be con- 
strued into meaning that his work, as a whole, is not 
subject to differentiation. The close reader soon 
discovers a larger unity in the consistent purpose and 
the well-ordered system of philosophy which runs 
throughout Meredith's work. He furthermore per- 
ceives, if he makes a study of the novels, that they 
readily fall into four groups, each of which was pro- 
duced in a period of about ten years. The seeming 
artificiality of such a division becomes still more strik- 
ing when it is added that to each of these groups, 
except the first, just four works belong. But, how- 
ever arbitrary a classification based upon time and 
number may appear, especially when it permits 
such mathematical exactness of statement, it be- 
comes convincing, if, upon being observed from an- 
other point of view, it is still found to be accurate and 
adequate. 

The decade beginning in 1849 seems to have been 
for Meredith a period of experiment or preparation. 
Not quite sure of the kind of literature which he 
should cultivate, he began his career with the publi- 
cation of a poem called " Chillian wallah " in the 
issue of Chambers's Edinburgh Journal for July 7. 
Two years later a volume of poems appeared, and 
then in 1856 and 1857 respectively, "The Shaving of 



INTRODUCTION 9 

Shagpat" and "Farina." The composition of the 
poems, of the extravaganza, and of the medieval 
tale showed no fixity of purpose; and these works 
may be said, without undue disparagement, to ex- 
hibit a hesitancy which characterizes the apprentice 
rather than the experienced workman. 

The last years of this first period were no doubt 
spent in writing "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," 
for its publication in 1859 opened the second 
decade of Meredith's literary activity. This book 
showed a decided advance in power; and, viewed in 
the light of his subsequent work, it marked an awak- 
ening to a realization of the form of literature in 
which the writer could best express himself. The 
several novels beginning with " The Ordeal of Rich- 
ard Feverel " and ending with ** The Amazing Mar- 
riage," therefore, exhibit a homogeneity which does 
not exist in the works of the first period. They 
are, none the less, easily separated into three 
groups, each including four stories. The three 
decades, in each of which one of these groups was 
published, may receive a designation determined 
by the vantage ground from which the novels are 
studied. Such possible points of view are of course 
many; but the most important are those from which 
one may come to conclusions with regard either to 
Meredith's emancipation from the influence of other 
writers, or to the development in his philosophy of 
life. 

If the possibility of such a classification be ad- 
mitted, the decade beginning in 1859 may be called 
the period of influenced production, since "The Or- 



10 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

deal of Richard Feverel," published in that year, 
"Evan Harrington" in 1861, ''Emilia in England," 
as ''Sandra Belloni" was originally called, in 1864, 
"Rhoda Fleming" in 1865, and "Vittoria," which 
should be regarded not as a separate novel, but only 
as the completion of Sandra's story, in 1867, — all 
show striking lines of connection with the writings 
of Meredith's predecessors and contemporaries. 
Moreover, since these same novels make a system- 
atic onslaught upon sham and conventionality, the 
time in which they were produced may be called 
the period of attack upon sentimentalism. 

The third decade, separated from the second by 
two years of silence, began in 1871 with "The 
Adventures of Harry Richmond," and was still 
further marked by the publication of " Beauchamp's 
Career" in 1876, "The Egoist" in 1879, and "The 
Tragic Comedians" in 1880. These novels show al- 
most no traces of any other writer's influence, and 
may therefore be regarded as belonging to a period 
of free invention; but if emphasis is laid upon their 
philosophical content, since they present studies of 
selfishness or, to use Emerson's term — "selfism," 
they may be looked upon as having been produced 
during the period of attack upon egoism. 

After the publication of "The Tragic Comedians," 
Meredith permitted a lustrum to pass before he en- 
tered upon the final period of his activity as novelist. 
Like the novels of the preceding decade, those of this 
time, "Diana of the Crossways," published in 1885, 
"One of Our Conquerors" in 1891, "Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta" in 1894, and "The Amazing Mar- 



INTRODUCTION U 

riage" In 1895, present no striking instances of out- 
side influence; but since they centre themselves 
around a single problem, the unhappy marriage, they 
may be said to belong to the period of concentrated 
interest. Furthermore, since each of the novels in 
this group is a study of the separation of a husband 
and a wife through troubles arising from incompat- 
ibility of temper, disparity of age, or inequality of 
rank, and since Meredith apparently approves of the 
parting of man and wiie under such circumstances, 
the works of the last decade belong to the period of 
attack upon conventional ideas of marriage. 

Not a few objections may be urged against the 
classification just outlined; and at least two merit 
reply. The classification, it may be said, ignores 
the several volumes of poetry which Meredith has 
written. This is true undoubtedly, but save in so 
far as certain poems throw light upon the novels in 
matters of method, purpose, or expression, they may 
be ignored in a study of the prose wi-itings. Again, 
many threads of connection between the different 
groups are disregarded, and this might lead to the 
hasty conclusion that there is a lack of unity in 
Meredith's work. Now a classification is of greatest 
help when it is reduced to its lowest terms; and at 
this point it must be remembered that such a reduc- 
tion involves the casting out of all common factors 
and the retention of those alone which are unlike. 
Such a classification, however, still remains helpful 
even when elements eliminated earlier for the sake 
of clearness are reintroduced. 

The novels of Meredith, then, may be studied, if 



12 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

it is permissible to borrow terms from the artisan 
rather than from the artist, as works produced during 
years of activity in which he showed himself suc- 
cessively an apprentice, a journeyman, and a master- 
workman. In the first stage, he wrote those books 
already mentioned as belonging to a period of ex- 
periment and preparation; in the second, he pub- 
lished the works of the ten years designated as the 
period of influenced production or of attack upon 
sentimentalism; and in the third, he spent the 
greater part of his time upon the novels of two sep- 
arated decades, of which the earlier may be char- 
acterized as the period of free invention or of attack 
upon egoism; and the later as the period of concen- 
trated interest or of attack upon conventional ideas 
of marriage. 



II 

THE APPRENTICE 

-LITERARY CONDITIONS IN 
NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND BEFORE 1860 — 

THE ''poems" of 1851- 



The first decade of Meredith's literary career was 
the third of his life-time. Born in Hampshire, 
February 12, 1828, he lost during his childhood 
his Welsh father and Irish mother, and thereupon 
becoming a ward in chancery was sent to Germany 
for his education. Critics are probably not far 
WTong when they say that the man in whom was 
thus mingled blood drawn from two branches of the 
fancy-loving, quick-witted Celtic race, and whose 
training was received among a people posssssed of 
searching analytic intelligence, showed by his spark- 
ling wit and his almost mystical treatment of nature 
the influence of his ancestry on one hand, and by 
his penetrating insight into motives of conduct and 
his philosophical criticism of life the no less potent 
influence of his education on the other. But how- 
ever interesting and valuable it may be to point out 
the possible connections of earlier conditions and sur- 
roundings with later thought and methods, the fact 



14 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

that Meredith was placed at a school upon the con- 
tinent would imply, in so far as the mere events of 
his life are concerned, that his parents had left the 
boy provided with at least some little property. 
Such a conclusion, however, is hardly trustworthy, 
for we are often told that when Meredith in the first 
years of his manhood returned to England, he found 
himself compelled to enter immediately into a strug- 
gle with poverty , In all probability allowance should 
be made for exaggeration when one reads that the 
young man lived for several months upon oatmeal; 
yet there is no reason to doubt that he labored for 
years with pecuniary difficulties which to many would 
have been wholly disheartening. Under conditions, 
then, which must have been far from easy, Mere- 
dith, at the age of twenty-one, turned his attention 
to the study of law; but his interest, never more 
than lukewarm, soon cooled, and in a short time he 
abandoned all thought of the bar as a satisfactory 
profession. 

Journalism, as a means of livelihood, perhaps, 
rather than as a calling, next claimed him, and proved 
sufficiently attractive to make him willing in later 
life to serve at intervals upon various newspapers 
and magazines. But a greater interest than either 
law or journalism was stirring within him. Indeed 
as early as 1849, the year in which he was articled, 
Meredith, roused by the heroism of the English 
soldiery in the bloody battle of Chillian wallah, made 
his first appearance as author with a poem com- 
memorative of the victory. The stanzas were not 
included in the definitive and so called complete 



THE APPRENTICE 15 

edition of Meredith's works published in 1898; but 
whatever crudeness they may show, their author 
need not have been ashamed to reprint them. 

CHILLIANW ALLAH 

Chillian wallah! Chillian wallah I 

Where our brothers fought and bled I 
Oh! thy name is natural music, 

And a dirge above the dead! 
Though we have not been defeated, 

Though we can't be overcome. 
Still, whene'er thou art repeated, 

I would fain that grief were dumb. 

Chillian wallah! Chillian wallah I 

'Tis a name so sad and strange. 
Like a breeze through midnight harp-strings 

Ringing many a mournful change; 
But the wildness and the sorrow 

Have a meaning of their own — 
Oh! whereof no glad to-morrow 

Can relieve the dismal tone! 

Chillian wallah! Chillian wallah I 

'Tis a village dark and low. 
By the bloody Jhelum River, 

Bridged by the foreboding foe; 
And across the wintry water 

He is ready to retreat, 
When the carnage and the slaughter 

Shall have paid for his defeat. 

Chillian wallah ! Chillian wallah ! 

'Tis a wild and dreary plain, 
Strewn with plots ©f thickest jungle, 

Matted with the gory stain. 



16 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

There the murder-mouthed artillery 

In the deadly ambuscade, 
Wrok the thunder of his treachery 

On the skeleton brigade. 

Chillian wallah! Chillian wallah! 

When the night set in with rain. 
Came the savage plundering devils 

To their work among the slain; 
And the wounded and the dying 

In cold blood did share the doom 
Of their comrades round them lying, 

Stiff in the dread skyless gloom. 

Chillian wallah! Chillian wallah! 

Thou wilt be a doleful chord, 
And a mystic note of mourning 

That will need no chiming word; 
And that heart will leap with anguish 

Who may understand the best; 
But the hopes of all will languish 

Till thy memory is at rest. 

The publication of " Chillian wallah " has, of 
course, a certain interest as the starting point in 
Meredith's literary career. A mere date in itself, 
however, is usually of very little value in the life of 
an author. Far more important is the place which 
he holds relatively to other writers, especially if he 
makes his appearance at a time favorable to his best 
development. Such was the case with Meredith. 
Even going back to the beginning, one learns that 
Meredith's birth preceded Ibsen's by but one month, 
and Dante Gal)riel Rossetti's by only three. The 
year of 1828 also saw the establishment of The 
AthencBum and The Spectator, two reviews which 



THE APPRENTICE 17 

for many years disagreed whenever a work by Mere- 
dith appeared, since the first was nearly always 
favorable, despite any restrictions which it saw fit 
to suggest; while the second was seldom other than 
depreciatory, whatever merit it was grudgingly 
forced to allow. 

In 1828, of the poets favorably known during the 
early part of the nineteenth century, Byron, Shelley, 
and Keats were dead; and Moore, Coleridge, Southey, 
and Wordsworth had all done their best work, al- 
though Southey was still Poet-Laureate, and Words- 
worth was to succeed to that oflBce in 1843. Tenny- 
son and Elizabeth Barrett were but just known, 
and Browning had not printed ''Pauline." Among 
the essayists and reviewers, Hazlitt and Lamb were 
near the end of their lives; Hunt, DeQuincey, and 
Landor were in mid-career; Macaulay had contrib- 
uted his first vigorous articles to The Edinburgh 
Review; Carlyle was at the close of his period of ex- 
treme admiration for things German; and Ruskin 
was a boy of ten. Scott, of course, was the acknowl- 
edged leading novelist; but the roll of the *' Waverly'* 
series was nearly complete. Thomas Love Pea- 
cock, who was to become Meredith's father-in-law, 
was very popular as the author of several satirical 
tales of English life, Susan Ferrier was between 
"Inheritance" and ''Destiny," and Maria Edgeworth 
between "Ormund" and "Helen." DisraeH had 
just published "Vivian Gray;" Bulwer, not y^i 
raised to the peerage, was in the period of his wild 
and wicked heroes; and G. P. R. James, foolishly 
encouraged by Scott, was at work upon "Richelieu." 



18 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Between 1828 and 1859, that is during the thirty 
years which lay between Meredith's birth and the 
appearance of his first novel, important changes 
took place in literary England. Tennyson steadily 
forged ahead until he succeeded Wordsworth as 
Poet-Laureate in 1850, and by publishing *'In Me- 
moriam" in the same year, so effectually silenced the 
sneers which "The Princess" had awakened in 1847, 
that he was felt to have placed his fame upon no 
doubtful foundation, a belief greatly strengthened 
by the appearance of the first four "Idylls of the 
King" in 1858. Browning was making his way 
more slowly, but he completed the series called 
"Bells and Pomegranates"; and somewhat later, 
"Men and Women," despite the cheap flings of 
critics, gained him no mean following. His wife, 
however, was regarded by nearly everybody as the 
greater poet of the two, though that very mild 
poem, "Aurora Leigh," was looked upon as a rather 
shocking piece of work for a lady. Arnold was se- 
verely criticised again and again for his attempt to 
write English poetry in accordance with Greek 
methods; Rossetti's verses awaited their resurrec- 
tion from the grave of his wife; and Swinburne was 
probably no more than beginning to think about 
those naughty "Poems and Ballads" which event- 
ually troubled the sentimental propriety of England. 

During the same period Peacock amused his 
readers with his satire of "Crotchet Castle"; and 
Disraeli dabbled in various themes. Bulwer man- 
aged to escape from his melodramatic heroes and 
colorless virgins, and after trying to balance himself 



THE APPRENTICE 19 

in writing historical novels, subsided into his com- 
plex period of the highly moral mingled with the 
supernatural; while G. P. R. James placed an al- 
most endless succession of wooden horsemen, one by 
one, upon nearly every plain which the world af- 
forded. The Bronte galaxy all ran their brilliant 
courses, although many considered the sisters in- 
ferior to Samuel Lover, Charles Lever, and Fred- 
erick Marryat; Trollope began his systematic writ- 
ing of a fixed number of pages each day, and 
produced, on the average, three novels every two 
years; Kingsley gained the reputation of being ready 
to speak in sincere defense of every just cause; but, 
after exhibiting himself in "Alton Locke" as a 
champion of the workingman, he turned his atten- 
tion to historical tales. Before doing this, however, 
he let his mantle fall upon Charles Reade, who had 
already gained favorable recognition as a playwright, 
but who thereupon began the composition of novels 
which inveighed against social wrongs and abuses. 
Ac the very close of the period George Eliot aston- 
ished herself no less than the world by the success 
with which she met in writing, at the suggestion of 
George Henry Lewes, the three stories now col- 
lected under the title, "Scenes of Clerical Life"; and 
Wilkie Collins set about the composition of "The 
Woman in White," that attractive example of a 
story told for the story's sake. But the two men 
who alone were mentioned in the same breath with 
Scott were Dickens and Thackeray. Born within 
a twelve-month of each other, they both began their 
literary work soon after the year of Meredith's birth, 



20 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

and publishing their writings with marked regu- 
larity, had completed nearly all their important 
novels when ''The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" 
appeared in 1859. 

Among prose writers other than novelists, Carlyle 
and Ruskin were preaching the nobility of labor, and 
fulminating against cant and sham; while Macaulay 
continued to write his brilliant essays and began his 
no less brilliant history. The Tractarian move- 
ment ran its course with its remarkable display of 
fine rhetoric, enthusiastic zeal, and deep religious 
feeling. The opposing leaders, Pusey and New- 
man, both equally sincere, shook the English Church 
to its foundations; while Gladstone, though not in the 
midst of the conflict, hovered with much apprehen- 
sion upon the outskirts of the battlefield. George 
Eliot hardly helped to simplify matters by translat- 
ing German inquiries into the authenticity of Chris- 
tianity; and the works of Darwin and of Spencer in 
natural science and in philosophy not only added to 
the confusion, but forced thinking men to give up 
long accepted doctrines, and to reformulate many 
sacred beliefs. 

Such then were the literary conditions in England 
while Meredith was getting his schooling upon the 
continent, and was later serving his apprenticeship 
at home. In wealth of genius these years have 
often been compared with justice to the Elizabethan 
Age. Poetry flourished as freely in one period as 
in the other; the novel in the later took the place of 
the drama in the earlier; and discoveries in science 
were hardly less important in opening new vistas 



THE APPRENTICE 21 

to men's imagination than were the explorations of 
Raleigh and Drake. In other words, the later 
period, like the former, did not so much try men's 
souls, as it permitted their full development. Under 
such conditions, therefore, an intellect like Mere- 
dith's must beyond a doubt have found sustenance 
on every side and incentives at every turn. 

But however much it may be evident in after years 
that a writer's work has been influenced by his an- 
cestry, his education, his early struggles with poverty, 
and the literary conditions which have surrounded 
his first sallies into the fields of authorship, it is not 
always found that in the beginning he exhibited a 
knowledge of the form in which he could best ex- 
press himself. Such at all events, is the case with 
Meredith. His first poem of "Chillianwallah" was 
perhaps but an accidental utterance of patriotic ad- 
miration for those who snatched victory out of de- 
feat while fighting for their country's honor. Be 
that as it may, the young law student spent the 
next two years in preparing a small volume of verse 
to which he gave no more ambitious title than 
"Poems by George Meredith." Five years later, 
in 1856, he published in prose, an Arabian story 
called "The Shaving of Shagpat"; and this was re- 
ceived with sufficient favor to encourage his further 
testing the temper of the public in the following 
year with a German tale named " Farina, A Legend 
of Cologne." These two stories, wholly dissimilar 
in diction, character drawing, and plot, force the 
reader to feel that Meredith was at the stage of ex- 
periment, rather than at that of conscious power. 



22 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Certainly all this earlier work betrayed a lack of 
finality, thus standing in direct contrast to the con- 
vincing firmness of tone which characterized "The 
Ordeal of Richard Feverel." With this book, pub- 
lished in 1859, Meredith's period of apprenticeship 
came to an end; his ten years of experiment had 
taught him that his work must be done in the field 
of novel-writing. The classification of the earlier 
writings of Meredith as experimental, however, does 
not permit their immediate dismissal from our at- 
tention. At the time of their publication, it is true, 
he had not determined his style, nor formulated his 
philosophy; but he was writing under influences 
which remained powerful with him for several years; 
he was trying methods of expression, not a few of 
which became characteristic of his style; and he was 
giving voice to ideas which in their later develop- 
ment caused many to regard him as almost an 
oracle. 

The "Poems" of 1851 made no very distinct im- 
pression upon the public, though William Michael 
Rossetti praised the book in The Critic, and Charles 
Kingsley reviewed it appreciatively in Eraser's Mag- 
azine. The critics in general, however, seemed to 
feel that they were tempering justice with mercy 
when they dealt Meredith the rather dubious and 
disheartening compliment of saying that the poems 
showed promise. As a matter of fact, they really 
deserved greater commendation. Crudities appeared 
on almost every page, it is true, but there was none 
the less a spontaneous, limpid flow in many of the 
stanzas, which may be favorably compared with the 



^HE APPRENTICE 23 

smoothness of Tennyson's first volume; and further- 
more, there also appeared abundant evidences of 
a vigor of thought and a boldness of diction which 
more than offset an occasionally obvious strain after 
originality. Without any endeavor to be nice in 
making selections, one may turn immediately to the 
simple stanzas which open the poem called " The 
Sleeping City." 

"A princess in the eastern tale, 
Paced thro' a marble city pale, 
And saw on ghastly shapes of stone, 
The sculptured life she breathed alone; 

"Saw, where'er her eye might range. 
Herself the only child of change; 
And heard her echoed footfall chime 
Between Oblivion and Time; 

** And in the squares where fountains played, 
And up the spiral balustrade, 
Along the drowsy corridors 
Even to the inmost sleeping floors, 

"Surveyed in wonder chilled with dread. 
The seemingness of Death, not dead; 
Life's semblance but without its storm 
And silence frosting every form." 

Here certainly is an atmosphere reminding the 
reader of the success with which Tennyson drew 
the loneliness of Mariana in the moated grange, or 
with which Shelley pictured the lovely lady of "The 
Sensitive Plant. " But if one is in quest of the quality 
of atmosphere, one finds it beyond a doubt in "Will 



24 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

o' the Wisp," where the lightsome eeriness of UU and 
rhythm seems to echo the mocking laughter of 
the crazy hobgoblin flying over the oozy marshes 
of the woods. 

"Follow me, follow me, 
Over brake and under tree, 
Thro' the bosky tanglery, 
Brushwood and bramble! 

Follow me, follow me. 

Laugh and leap and scramble! 

Follow, follow. 

Hill and hollow, 

Fosse and burrow. 

Fen and furrow, 
Down into the bulrush beds, 
'Midst the reeds and osier heads, 
In the rushy soaking damps. 
Where the vapours pitch their camps, 

Follow me, follow me. 
For a midnight ramble 1 
"Ol what a mighty fog, 
"What a merry night O ho! 
Follow, follow, nigher, nigher — 
Over bank, and pond, and briar, 
Down into the croaking ditches. 

Rotten log. 

Spotted frog. 

Beetle bright 

With crawling light, 

What a joy O ho! 
Deep into the purple bog — 

What a joy O ho! 



" Down we go, down we go, 

What a joy O ho! 
Soon shall I be down below. 
Plunging with a gray fat friar, 



THE APPRENTICE 25 

Hither, thither, to and fro, 
Breathing mists and whisking lamps, 
Plashing in the shiny swamps; 
While my cousin Lantern Jack, 
With cock ears and cunning eyes, 
Turns him round upon his back, 
Daubs him oozy green and black, 
Sits upon his rolling size, 
Where he lies, where he hes. 
Groaning full of sack — 
Staring with his great round eyes I 

What a joy O ho! 
Sits upon him in the swamps 
Breathing mists and whisking lampsl 

What a joy O ho! 
"Such a lad is Lantern Jack, 
When he rides the black nightmare 
Through the fens and puts a glare 
lu the friar's track. 
Snch a frolic lad, good lack! 
To turn a friar on his back. 
Trip him, clip him, whip him, nip him. 
Lay him sprawling smack! 
Such a lad is Lantern Jack! 
Such a tricksy lad, good lackl 

What a joy O ho! 

Follow me, follow me, 
Where he sits, and you shall see!" 

These lines recall the goblin passage in Milton's 
"L* Allegro," and suggest, though more remotely, the 
meeting of Shakspeare's weird sisters in the cauldron 
scene of "Macbeth." Their best analogy is found, 
however, not in literature, but in the kindred art of 
music, where the "Humoresken" of Grieg and the 
"Marche Grotesque" of Arensky express the same 
odd effervescence of spirit. 



2G THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Of an entirely different nature were nine quatrains 
each dealing with the work of one of the greater 
writers who preserved the true traditions of English 
poetry from Chaucer to Keats. Unrhymed, and to 
a certain extent careless of the laws of metre, they 
show a strength of thought and a fulhiess of tone 
somewhat suggestive of Whitman. 

THE POETRY OF MILTON 

Like to some deep-chested organ whose grand Inspiration 
Serenely majestic in utterance, lofty and calm, 
Interprets to mortals with melody great as its burthen, 
The mystical harmonies chiming forever throughout the 
bright spheres. 

THE POETRY OF WORDSWORTH 

A breath of the mountains, fresh born in the regions majestic, 
That look with their eye-daring summits deep into the sky. 
The voice of great Nature; sublime with her lofty conceptions, 
Yet earnest and simple as any sweet child of the green lowly vale. 

Submitted recently to an enthusiastic admirer of 
Wordsworth in America, these lines called forth 
strong approval; but that Meredith at the age of 
twenty-one showed sufficient insight to write them, 
cannot be looked upon as a mere accident. A large 
number of these early poems have to do with nature 
themes; and that not a few of them might have 
emanated from Dove Cottage is well instanced, for 
an example, by the concluding verses of "The South- 
west Wind in the Woodland.'* 

"The voice of Nature is abroad 
This night; she fills the air with balm; 
Her mystery is o'er the land; 
And who that hears her now and yields 



THE APPRENTICE 27 

His being to her yearning tones, 

And seats his soul upon her wings, 

And broadens o'er the wind-swept world 

With her, will gather in the flight 

More knowledge of her secret, more 

Delight in her beneficence 

Than hours of musing, or the love 

That lives with man, could ever give I 

Nor will it pass away v.hen morn 

Shall look upon the lulling leaves 

And woodland sunshine, Eden-sweet, 

Dreams o'er the paths of peaceful shade; — 

For every elemental power 

Is kindred to our hearts, and once 

Acknowledged, wedded, once embraced, 

Once taken to the unfettered sense, 

Once claspt into the naked life, 

The union is eternal." 

But Wordsworth was not Meredith's only teacher; 
he learned also from Shakespeare. Certainly no 
unprejudiced reader can fail to hear in the lyrics 
called "Spring" and "Autumn" the haunting lilt 
of such songs as "When Daisies Pied and Violets 
Blue" in "Love's Labour's Lost" or *'It was a 
Lover and His Lass" in "As You Like It." 

SPRING 

WTien buds of palm do burst and spread 

Their downy feathers in the lane. 
And orchard blossoms, white and red. 

Breathe Spring delight for Autumn gain; 

And the skylark shakes his wings in the rain; 

Oh then is the season to look for a bride! 

Choose her warily, woo her unseen; 
For the choicest maids are those that hide 

Like dewy violets under the green. 



28 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

AUTUaiN 

When nuts behind the hazel-leaf 

Are brown as the squirrel that haunts them free, 
And the fields are rich with the sun-burnt sheaf, 

'Mid the blue corn-flower and the yellowing tree; 

And the farmer glows and beams in his glee; 

Oh then is the season to wed thee a bride! 

Ere the garners are filled and the ale-cups foam; 
For a smiling hostess is the pride 

And flower of every harvest home. 

Despite the weakness of the ending of each of the 
poems just quoted, the verse, if not Shakesperean, 
is at least EHzabethan in simpUcity and sincerity. 
Now it happened that both these terms were watch- 
words, though hardly in a Shakesperean sense, with 
the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who, about the 
middle of the nineteenth century, were astonishing 
both the English nation and themselves with their 
new ideas in art and literature. Just what the ac- 
quaintance between George Meredith and Dante 
Gabriel Rossetti may have been when both in 1851 
reached the age of twenty-three, is not very well- 
known ; yet a connection between Rossetti and other 
writers has been asserted on much more dubious 
ground than need be assumed for the relation be- 
tween the chief pre-Raphaelite poet and Meredith. 
The Brotherhood, in their commendable effort after 
sincerity, made the unfortunate double mistake of 
most reformers, that of going too far, and that of ignor- 
ing the corrective influence of common sense. Mer- 
edith unfortunately exhibited })oth the presumable 



THE APPRENTICE 29 

merit and the actual fault, when in urging his lady 
to a ramble over the fields, he wrote the lines : 

"Thou art no nun, veiled and vowed; doomed to nourish a 

withering pallor! 
City exotics beside thee would show like bleached linen at 

midday 
Hung upon hedges of eglantine! — " 

Such a quotation, of course, cannot by itself prove 
that Meredith wrote under the influence of Rossetti; 
but the eighth stanza of " Love in the Valley," as it 
appeared in the ''Poems" of 1851, is pretty convinc- 
ing. It is Rossetti through and through, not indeed 
the Rossetti of "The Blessed Damozel," but rather 
the poet of "The Ballads" and the painter of 
"The Annunciation." 

"When at dawn she wakens, and her face gazes 

Out on the weather thro' the window panes, 
Beauteous she looks! like a white water-Hly 

Bursting out of bud on the rippled river-plains. 
When from her bed she rises clothed from neck to ankle 

In her long nightgown sweet as boughs of May 
Beauteous she looks! Like a tall garden lily 

Pure from the night and perfect for the day." 

It is easy to say that the lines just escape being 
ridiculous; but for the matter of that the pre-Ra- 
phaelites spent most of the earlier days of their 
movement in trying to make such escape both in 
their poems and in their paintings. On the other 
hand, there are some people who think the stanza 
beautiful, a pretty conclusive proof that there is no 
profit in disputes concerning taste. Nevertheless, it 



so THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

would be unfair to leave the impression that the 
best poem in the volume is not better than its v^eak- 
est part. Tennyson and Rossetti looked upon the 
lyric with favor; and Meredith himself cared sufl5- 
ciently for it to subject it to careful revision in 1878, 
when it appeared in Macmillan^s Magazine for 
October, and to include it in "Poems and Lyrics of 
the Joy of Earth" published in 1883. Even before 
its revision, it contained among others such well- 
nigh perfect stanzas as these: 

"Shy as a squirrel, and wayward as a swallow; 

Swift as the swallow when athwart the western flood 
Circleting the surface he meets his mirrored winglets, — 

Is that dear one in her maiden bud. 
Shy as the squirrel whose nest is in the pine- tops; 

Gentle — ah! that she were jealous as the dove! 
Full of all the wildness of the woodland creatures, 

Happy in herself is the maiden that I love! 

"Happy, happy time, when the gray star twinkles 

Over the fields all fresh with bloomy dew; 
When the cold-checked dawn grows ruddy up the twilight. 

And the gold sun wakes, and weds her in the blue. 
Then when my darling tempts the early breezes, 

She the only star that dies not with the dark! 
Powerless to speak all the ardor of my passion 

I catch her little hand as we listen to the lark." 

Here indeed is the lyric cry; and its sweetness is all 
Meredith's own. 

The fact that on the whole these early poems 
show the influence of Wordsworth, Shakespeare, 
and Rossetti may not at first thought seem to 
have much bearing upon Meredith's prose work. 



THE APPRENTICE 31 

But as Nature is often a determining force in the 
novels, as Meredith professedly uses dramatic meth- 
ods in presenting his characters, and as truth in 
self-expression is one of his principal teachings, 
it is not without interest to know that in his very 
earliest work he shows the influence, however slight 
and remote, of our chief nature-poet, of our fore- 
most dramatist, and of a young enthusiast not un- 
justly called by his contemporaries, the apostle of 
sincerity. 

Meredith's practice in poetic diction undoubtedly 
played an important part in forming the style of his 
first prose work; but the influence which appears to 
have been felt most strongly in the wi'iting of " The 
Shaving of Shagpat" was foreign, rather than na- 
tive. There are, it is true, striking resemblances 
between Meredith's eastern tale and Beckford's 
" Vathek"; but the similarity is due to their common 
origin in *'The Arabian Nights" rather than to any 
study which Meredith might have made of Beck- 
ford's romance. No doubt Meredith knew the elder 
vn-iter's book, for its popularity hardly waned from 
the time of its publication in 1786 until well on 
towards the middle of the nineteenth century; and its 
influence, moreover, was as openly admitted by 
writers, as it was freely discussed by readers. Byron, 
for instance, did not hesitate to say that he owed 
certain parts of "Lara," of ''The Corsair" and even 
of " Childe Harold" to Beckford; and if Moore and 
Southey flattered themselves with being more dis- 
creet, they did not succeed in misleading anybody 
by their silence. Under these circumstances, it 



32 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

may be concluded that probably Beckford's stories 
suggested possibilities to Meredith. However that 
may be, it still remains true that "The Shaving of 
Shagpat" is more nearly like "The Arabian 
Nights" than like "Vathek," and that it is also 
much better sustained throughout than is Beckford's 
work. In execution, like its eastern predecessor, 
Meredith's extravaganza shuts up one story inside 
another, much as do those magic boxes sometimes 
brought from the Orient; while its exuberance of 
detail, its brilliancy of color, and its quickness of 
movement present the alternating chaos and order of 
the kaleidoscope. Successful, however, as the book 
is on the whole, it must be admitted that there is dis- 
cernible here and there an artificiality, a suggestion 
of the author playing the showman, which prevents 
the reader's mistaking "The Shaving of Shagpat" 
for the thousand-and-second tale of Scheherazade. 

The character of Meredith's Arabian entertain- 
ment, as he called it, permitted or perhaps even de- 
manded the use of an ornate and florid style; yet 
the luxuriant profusion of figures, indicative of an 
unusually fertile imagination, the gorgeous display 
of sparkling diction due to a glowing appreciation of 
color and form, and the smooth flowing cadences 
traceable only to accuracy in the author's understand- 
ing of tone, were so well managed as to save Mere- 
dith from falling into the production of that mongrel 
kind of shilly-shally writing called "poetic prose." 
The frequent use of metaphor and simile in the book, 
no doubt, had something to do with awakening in 
Meredith that predilection for figurative language 



THE APPRENTICE 33 

which often laid his later books open to the charge 
of obscurity; but in "The Shaving of Shagpat, at 
least, the motive for each figure is obvious; and when 
one is introduced, it is sufficiently developed to pre- 
vent any misconception of the author's meaning. In 
the later works, on the contrary, Meredith often in- 
volves one trope in another, until the reader in his 
confusion drops the thread which is his only means 
of escape from the beautiful but tangled maze. 
Hardly less frequent than the figures of speech 
which wind through these stories are the flashes of di- 
rect and ironic wit which illuminate nearly every page. 
The book is bright with sharp epigrams and strong 
aphorisms which pale only beside the scintillating 
brilHancy of "The Pilgrim's Scrip," in "The Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel." Hardly separable from this 
wit is a humor which forces the reader near to im- 
moderate laughter. The history of the doleful 
thwackings which befel Shibli Bagarag in the city of 
Shagpat the clothier, the shameful punishments 
which Shahpesh the Persian visited upon Khipil the 
builder, and the frightful agonies which were suf- 
fered by Baba Mustapha through the persecutions 
of the Genie Karaz in the form of a flea, are per- 
haps as ludicrous as anything English literature can 
show in the field of sheer fun. The story, of course, 
is written in mock-heroic vein, and is full of whims 
and absurdities, which are often expressed in lan- 
guage purposely grandiose and inflated; but there 
are, none the less, passages of true pathos and un- 
usual beauty. Certainly to one who is moved by 
the charm of an exquisite mingling of melodious 



34 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

words informed by noble thoughts and poetic feel- 
ing, "The Lily of the Enchanted Sea" is altogether 
lovely, and "The Story of Bhanavar the Beautiful" 
is well-nigh perfect from beginning to end. 

Of the many phases of beauty appearing in "The 
Shaving of Shagpat," the treatment which Meredith 
accorded to nature is not least important The 
book has numerous bits of landscape description, 
although, rather surprisingly, sustained passages of 
this sort are few. After the amount of attention 
given to nature in the early book of poems, Meredith 
might have been expected to show growth in a power 
already possessed in a high degree; and, further- 
more, taking into consideration the attention paid 
to nature in "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," a 
reader wonders why Meredith allowed this field of 
his art to lie so nearly fallow even for a time. But 
despite the apparent neglect on his part, he did ex- 
hibit a tendency towards what became an important 
element in his later work. This was his recognition 
of a sympathetic connection between Nature and 
Man, that is of a dynamic relationship between 
scene and character which through interaction are 
made to gain from each other. This treatment of 
Nature was indeed not new in literature, for Shake- 
speare used it frequently, and Tennyson cultivated 
it carefully. Scott, too, recognized its value, but it 
is safe to say that it has been more fully developed 
by Meredith than by any other English novelist. 

Still another tendency, although not connected 
with the preceding in any way save in time and place 
of appearance, was the use of a device which has 



THE APPRENTICE 35 

come to be looked upon as a characteristic of Mer- 
edith's novels. It consists in the formal introduction 
of a proverb, a stanza of poetry, or even a prose 
passage of some length, as a kind of general criticism 
upon the conduct of the characters. By this is meant 
not the method frequently employed by Thackeray 
and George Eliot and sometimes by Meredith him- 
self, that of suddenly appearing upon the stage for 
the purpose of calling attention to the actors or 
perhaps of pointing a moral; but rather the method 
of the old Greek drama in which the chorus com- 
ments as fate upon the meaning of the impulses, the 
words, and the deeds of the men and women in the 
play. Occurring but occasionally in "The Shaving 
of Shagpat," this device almost ran riot in "The 
Ordeal of Richard Feverel." Thereafter, Meredith 
was more restrained in its use, but the tendency reap- 
peared in " Sandra Belloni " and in "The Egoist," and 
became pronounced in "The Amazing Marriage." 

These comments as they occur in "The Shaving 
of Shagpat" have a second significance probably not 
dreamed of by Meredith in writing them. Usually 
in this particular story they take the form of quat- 
rains, which in spite of a difference in the succession 
of rhymes, are a curious anticipation of Omar 
Khayyam as translated by Edward Fitzgerald. A 
few stanzas taken at hazard are convincing. 

"The curse of sorrow is comparison! 

As the sun casteth shade, night showeth star, 
We, measuring what we were by what we are, 
Behold the depth to which we are undone." 



36 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

"On different heads misfortunes come: 
One bears them firm, another faints, 
While this one hangs them like a drum 
Whereon to batter loud complaints." 



"Thou that dreamest an event, 
While Circumstance is but a waste of sand, 
Arise, take up thy fortunes in thy hand. 

And daily forward pitch thy tent." 

Although Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam 
was published in 1859, three years after the appear- 
ance of "The Shaving of Shagpat," it is known to 
have been circulated in manuscript for some time 
before it was printed. There is no evidence, how- 
ever, that either of the writers actually borrowed 
from the other, though the striking similarity of 
tone between the two works is, to say the least, 
interesting. 

The lot which has befallen Meredith of always 
being taken too seriously or not seriously enough 
is evidenced in the two or three attempts that have 
been made to interpret "The Shaving of Shagpat" 
allegorically. To the most recent, it is said, Mere- 
dith courteously replied that the elaborate exposi- 
tion recalled some of the thoughts which he had when 
writing the fantasy, but that as a matter of fact, the 
book was no more an allegory than Crummies 
was a Prussian. This commentator might have 
been spared his work, interesting as he undoubtedly 
found it, had he been acquainted with the second 
edition of "The Shaving of Shagpat." This ap- 
peared in 1865 and contained a Prefatory Note de- 



THE APPRENTICE 37 

nying that the story was susceptible of any esoteric 
interpretation. The note is not reprinted in edi- 
tions now accessible; characteristic of Meredith, how- 
ever, it well deserves reproduction. 

"It has been suggested to me by one who has no 
fear of Allegories on the banks of the Nile, that the 
hairy Shagpat must stand to mean umbrageous 
Humbug conquering the sons of men; and that 
Noorna bin Noorka represents the seasons, which 
help us, if there is health in us, to dispel the afflic- 
tion of his shadow; while my heroic Shibli Bagarag 
is actually to be taken for Circumstance, which 
works under their changeful guidance towards our 
ultimate release from bondage, but with a disap- 
pointing apparent waywardness. The excuse for 
such behavior as this youth exhibits, is so good 
that I would willingly let him wear the grand masque 
hereby offered to him. But, though his backslidings 
cry loudly for some sheltering plea, or garb of dig- 
nity, and though a story-teller should be flattered 
to have it supposed that anything very distinct was 
intended by him, the Allegory must be rejected al- 
together. The subtle Ai-ab who conceived Shagpat, 
meant either very much more, or he meant less; and 
my belief is, that, designing in his wisdom simply 
to amuse, he attempted to give a larger embrace to 
time than is possible to the profound dispenser of 
Allegories, which are mortal; which, to be of any 
value, must be perfectly clear, and when perfectly 
clear, are as little attractive as Mrs. Malapropos 
reptile." 

Of more importance than either the meanings 



38 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

which have been read into " The Shaving of Shagpat," 
or the beginnings of those pecuHarities of expression 
which became a striking characteristic of the later 
works, or even those possible sources and influence 
which are easier to assert than to prove, is the 
promulgation of principles which Meredith in after 
years used as more or less important parts of a con- 
sistent system of philosophy. Character with him 
no less than with Shakespeare is the source of destiny. 
A man's conduct in a crisis is determined by his 
previous thoughts and acts. Pride and cowardice, 
avarice and fear as surely bring to nothing, as cour- 
age and faithfulness, honor and humility lead to 
triumph. Egoism, the undue worship of the per- 
ishable self; sentimentalism, the elevation, according 
to Meredith, of the constantly changing conven- 
tional above the "eternal verities," are perhaps for 
a time their own exceeding great reward; but the 
ironic laughter of truth is heard at last, the illusions 
are dispelled, and the king is glad to propitiate the 
people by the voluntary resignation of the crown to 
Shibli Bagarag, the Master of the Event. The 
words of the sage are indeed seen to be the words of 
wisdom when he says : 

"Power, on Illusion based o'ertoppeth all; 
The more disastrous is its certain fall!" 

But the mere recognition of a truth does not bring 
salvation, nor having touched success at one point 
may the race of mankind be content. 

"For the mastery of an event lasteth among men 
the space of one cycle of years, and after that a fresh 



THE APPRENTICE 39 

Illusion springeth to befool mankind. ... As the 
poet declareth in his scorn: 

'Some doubt eternity; from life begun, 
Has folly ceased within them, sire to son? 
So, ever fresh Illusions will arise 
And lord creation, until men are wise.' 

And he adds: 

'That is a distant period; so prepare 
To fight the false, O youths, and never spare! 
For who would live in chronicles renowned 
Must combat folly, or as fool be crowned.' " 

Of the many illusions which are constantly ham- 
pering mankind in its advance toward full perfec- 
tion, Meredith, judged by all his writings, from be- 
ginning to end, seems to look upon the conventional 
attitude towards women as the most stubborn, — 
as an Event, indeed, to an assistance in the mastery 
of which he himself has heard no uncertain call. 
Even in this early work he did not hesitate to take 
the stand that without the aid of woman, man must 
leave much undone, since from her chidings he 
learns many things, and through her encouragement 
he becomes strengthened to retrieve his errors and 
to save himself from complete overthrow. Indeed, 
so strongly does Meredith insist upon these doc- 
trines, that he may himself be regarded as the Sage 
who said in speaking of the Laws made in honor of 
Noorna by Shibli Bagarag for the protection and 
upholding of woman, 

"Were men once clad in them, we should create 
A race not following, but commanding, fate." 



40 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Serious as some of these teaching are, however, 
"The Shaving of Shagpat" is on the whole to be re- 
garded as an extravaganza in both thought and ex- 
pression ; yet even from that point of view, the work 
has to be taken more seriously than the story which 
immediately followed it. "Farina" bubbles with 
laughter from beginning to end; and the reader 
seems to hear the author calling out from every 
page "That's the fun of it!" Only once in later 
life did Meredith give another exhibition of such un- 
restrained humor; but "The Case of General Ople 
and Lady Camper" has nothing in common with 
"Farina" save the jester's spirit which animates 
both. The story of the retired officer with his " gen- 
tlemanly residence" and of the lady who reformed 
both his speech and his manners, is an episode in 
recent English social life; but the history of the siege 
which Farina laid to the heart of Margarita is a 
German romance of the Middle Ages. It is a rol- 
licking tale of love and adventure, of blood and 
thunder, of kidnappings and rescues, of maidens 
and duennas, of knights and robbers, of saints and 
sinners, of nixies and devils, and, indeed, of pretty 
nearly everything in heaven above, in the earth be- 
neath, or in the waters under the earth. Its super- 
natural elements suggest the pseudo-Gothic romances 
of Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe ; its ridicule of 
the chivalry of mediaeval Germany recalls the picar- 
esque novel as modified by Cervantes; the Water- 
Lady is own sister to Fouque's Undine; and Aunt 
Lisbeth, judged from her suspicious watch over 
Margarita, must have learned her lesson in the same 



THE APPRENTICE 41 

school with the Aunts von Landshort who guarded 
the heiress of Katzenellenbogen in Washington Irv- 
ing's story of "The Spectre Bridegroom." But sug- 
gestive as the story is of other authors' creations, 
the probabihty of its actually owing anything what- 
ever to Meredith's contemporaries or predecessors 
is very remote. The most that can be said with cer- 
tainty is that "Farina" was Meredith's first book to 
show any traceable influence of his school days in 
Germany. 

The style of "Farina" is much less ornate than 
that of "The Shaving of Shagpat," the character 
and the setting both demanding a pruning of the 
diction which was fully appropriate to the earlier 
work. On the other hand the burlesque facetious- 
ness, at times approaching audacious nonsense, 
finds fitting expression in words and turns of phras- 
ing best described as piquant and quaint. Wit and 
humor play as freely here as in the story of Shibli 
Bagarag's adventures, but there is a noticeable ab- 
sence of pathos. The sayings of the Minnesingers 
serve the purpose of the Greek Chorus, as did the 
verses of the sage in "The Shaving of Shagpat;" 
and now and then there is a glint of the philosophy 
emphasized in the preceding book, such, for instance, 
as the corrective power of laughter, the inevitable 
fall that waits on pride, and the foolishness of plac- 
ing the conventional above the absolute. On the 
whole, however, a decided increase in power of de- 
scription is perhaps the most important advance 
which Meredith made in this story. Not as yet, it is 
true, did he show himself an artist in sustained pas- 



42 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

sages, but he exhibited an unusual skill in painting 
a picture with a few strokes; and, rather strangely, 
most of these have the Rembrandt-like character- 
istic of possessing a single point of light. Two 
scenes, the first from "The Lilies of the Valley," 
the second from "The Silver Arrow" adequately 
show this new development of Meredith's genius. 

"The moon was dipping dow^n, and paler, as if 
touched with a warning of dawn. Chill sighs from 
the open land passed through the city. On certain 
colored gables and wood-crossed fronts, the white 
light lingered; but mostly the houses were veiled in 
dusk, and Gottlieb's house was confused in the 
twilight with those of his neighbors, notwithstanding 
its greater stateliness, and the old grandeur of its 
timbered bulk." 

"They wound down numberless intersections of 
narrow streets with irregular-built houses standing 
or leaning wry-faced in row, here a quaint-beamed 
cottage, there almost a mansion with gilt arms, 
brackets, and devices. Oil lamps unlit hung at 
intervals by the corners near a pale Christ on cruci- 
fix. Across the passages they hung alight. The 
passages and alleys were too dusky and close for 
the moon in her brightest ardor to penetrate; 
down the streets a slender lane of white beams could 
steal. . . . After incessant doubling here and there, 
listening to footfalls, and themselves eluding a chase 
which their suspicious movements aroused, they 
came upon the Rhine. A full flood of moonlight 
burnished the knightly river in glittering scales, and 



THE APPRENTICE 43 

plates, and rings, as headlong it rolled seaward on 
from under crag and banner of old chivalry and 
rapine. Both greeted the scene with a burst of 
pleasure. The gray mist of flats on the south side 
glimmered delightful in their sight, coming from 
that drowsy crowd and press of habitations; but the 
solemn glory of the river, delaying not, heedless, 
impassioned — pouring on in some sublime confer- 
ence between it and heaven to the great marriage of 
waters — deeply shook Farina's enamoured heart. 
The youth could not restrain his tears, as if a magic 
wand had touched him. He trembled with love; 
and that delicate bliss which maiden hope first show- 
ers upon us like a silver rain when she has taken 
the shape of some young beauty and plighted us her 
fair fleeting hand, tenderly embraced him." 

With "Farina," Meredith ended his work as mere 
apprentice, and during the next two years gave his 
attention to the composition of "The Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel. Still, although the "Poems" of 
1851, "The Shaving of Shagpat," and "Farina" 
are to be regarded as belonging to the period of 
experiment and preparation, their importance is not 
slight. Therein are discernible the determining in- 
fluence of two or three great writers, the beginnings 
of a powerful and unusual style, the first applica- 
tions of methods new to English fiction, and certain 
fundamental ideas in a remarkable philosophy. In 
studying the growth of an author's genius, such 
things as these cannot be ignored, although the aver- 
age reader may look upon them as of little value. 
But even he, however, though he cares nothing about 



44 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

the genesis of a style, or the institutes of a philosophy 
can well afford to take down the early stories of 
Meredith and spend a little time with Shibli Bagarag 
as he proves himself worthy of the love of Noorna 
bin Noorka, or with Farina and the Goshawk while 
they rescue Margarita from the clutches of Baron 
Werner and his robber band. 



Ill 

THE JOURNEYMAN 

ASSIMILATED INFLUENCES — "tHE ORDEAL OF RICH- 
ARD FEVEREL " — " EVAN HARRINGTON " — " SANDRA 
BELLONI '' — '' VITTORIA " — '' RHODA FLEMING." 

The journeyman differs from the apprentice 
mainly in that he has discovered the bent of his 
genius, and is consciously possessed of power and 
skill. From observation and practice he has gained 
a certain self-confidence, and believes that he ought 
to be trusted to do ordinary work well; but if he 
has the making of a master-workman in him, this 
self-confidence does not let him fall into the trap 
of thinking that he has nothing more to learn. On 
the contrary, he still studies whatever has met with 
general approval, but he is now animated by a de- 
sire to become acquainted with methods and means 
rather than with results. The old inquiry of his 
apprenticeship, what must be imitated that proper 
training may be effected, gives way to the deeper 
and more important questions, how was this work 
done, and to what extent may the same methods be 
followed without the sacrifice of originality. He 
gets his answer, much as he did in earlier days, 
through experiment and imitation; but it is through 



46 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

experiment of a higher kind, and through imitations 
of a rarer sort. No longer satisfied with the sim- 
ple reproduction of what he has seen, he strives to 
express his own ideas as completely as he may with- 
out violating long accepted traditions and well au- 
thenticated principles. As a result, what he now 
places before the world, although it may still be sug- 
gestive of the work of others, is far from being 
a mere resemblance. In other words, the process 
of absorption is replaced by that of assimilation, and 
he is thus enabled to turn to his task with ever in- 
creasing energy, in the hope that he may yet produce 
a masterpiece which shall give lasting joy to both 
maker and user. 

The apprenticeship of Meredith seems to have 
been spent in a pretty close study of English, Arabian, 
and German models; but there came a time when 
the young author, after having fully decided to de- 
vote himself to novel writing, felt that he might trust 
somewhat freely to his own originality. Not so self- 
confident, however, as to consider himself a master- 
workman, he did not wholly emancipate himself 
from the influence of other authors, but spent his 
time upon four or five works which have much in 
common with the writings of his predecessors, Rich- 
ardson, Fielding, and Sterne, and with those of his 
contemporaries, Dickens, Thackeray, and George 
Eliot. This does not mean that Meredith merely 
copied these authors, nor that he deliberately bor- 
rowed from them. Indeed, whatever charges the 
most hostile critics have brought against him, none 
have taken it upon themselves to accuse him very 



THE JOURNEYMAN 47 

loudly of plagiarism, but have rather gone to the 
opposite extreme, insisting that in his self-sufficiency 
he refused to learn from those who could have taught 
him much. Writers of such criticism w^ould have 
said far less, had they known a little more. The true 
student of Meredith, whether admirer or not, plainly 
sees that the earlier novels, at least, are the resultant 
of some of the most important forces in the world 
of English letters. Appropriating whatever he 
deemed admirable, wherever he could find it, Mere- 
dith, either consciously or unconsciously, turned such 
material to account, first, however, so thoroughly 
assimilating it, that in its transformation it appeared 
wholly his own. Indebtedness thus incurred is by 
no means censurable. Meredith simply used a 
method which has been characteristic of the great- 
est authors from Homer to Moliere, from Chaucer 
to Browning. Indeed, it is not impossible that an 
overscrupulous care to be original from every point 
of view, is the mark of a second-rate mind rather than 
of a genius. 

For any young novelist writing during the middle 
years of the nineteenth century to have wholly re- 
jected what his surroundings abundantly offered 
would have been well-nigh impossible. So far as 
Meredith is concerned, the corrective power of his 
genius fortunately saved him from mere imitation, 
and helped him to the preservation of an original 
and striking individuality. Nevertheless, his envi- 
ronment was not without its disadvantages. At a 
time of great intellectual activity, the chorus of 
those who have gained the attention of the public is 



48 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

often so overpowering, as to drown the voice of any 
new aspirant to fame; and this was the unfortunate 
lot which befell Meredith when he published "The 
Ordeal of Richard Feverel." In 1859, readers ask- 
ing for the newest books could make choice of Dick- 
ens's "Tale of Two Cities," Thackeray's "Virgin- 
ians," Trollope's "Bertrams," Reade's "Love me 
Little, Love Me Long," Fitzgerald's translation of 
the "Rubaiyat," Darwin's "Origin of Species," and 
Mill's "Essay on Liberty." Moreover, during the 
same year, occurred the deaths of Leigh Hunt, Ma- 
caulay, De Quincey, and Hallam, thus giving the 
pessimist some excuse for shaking his head and 
mourning over the irreparable thinning in the ranks 
of literary men. Certainly the minds of those inter- 
ested in books and authors were taken up with many 
things; and it is therefore little surprising that, 
despite several favorable reviews, the first edition 
of "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" supplied all 
demands for nineteen years. But whatever disap- 
pointment Meredith may have felt over the recep- 
tion accorded his first novel, its publication was an 
important event in his career. It showed conclusively 
that he was ready to abandon such cherry-stone carv- 
ing as "The Shaving of Shagpat," and that he was 
sufficiently sure of himself to enter into competition 
with other novelists, and to submit to measurement 
by their standards. 

"The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," was followed 
as rapidly as careful work would permit by "Evan 
Harrington," "Sandra Belloni," "Rhoda Fleming," 
and " Vittoria," all of which, as has been said, pos- 



THE JOURNEYMAN 49 

sess in common at least one characteristic, that of 
recalling the writings of other authors. This sugges- 
tiveness, however, is much stronger in some cases 
than in others. Sometimes it is a feature of style; 
often it is a similarity of incident, or a likeness in 
character-drawing; now and then it is almost safe 
to say that a certain personage could not have been 
created, had it not been for the existence of some 
other novelist's work; and occasionally striking par- 
allels of considerable length can be pointed out 
between Meredith and others. True as these state- 
ments are, however, the influence which predecessors 
and contemporaries seem to have exerted upon Mere- 
dith is to be felt rather than seen. Often there is 
no more than a whiff or a tang of the borrowed 
flavor, and even these are lost as soon as tasted. 
Clearly, anything so evanescent will hardly bear 
much insistence. Still if Meredith himself should 
rise up in protest, and assert that he was uncon- 
scious of any outside influences whatever, the com- 
parison would still remain true and have a certain 
interesting value. 

When "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel'' ap- 
peared, some reviews called it a Shandean romance, 
and others said that it betrayed the influence of 
Bulwer's "Caxtons": nor can it be denied that the 
critics had some warrant for their statements. Rich- 
ard Feverel's Uncle Algernon had been a gentle- 
man of the Guards, but had unfortunately lost his leg 
as the result of an injury received in a cricket match; 
Pisistratus Caxton's uncle Roland had lost a leg 
at the battle of Waterloo; and Tristram Shandy's 



50 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Uncle Toby had been severely wounded in the leg 
at the siege of Namur. Now, of course, the presence of 
one-legged uncles in novels hardly constitutes a simi- 
larity which is to be taken as other than accidental; 
but in addition, all the uncles and, even more, all 
the fathers in these three stories had various hobbies, 
not the least important of which were their remark- 
able ideas of how the several young heirs should be 
brought up. Sterne refers more than once with 
some humor to what he calls the Shandean system 
of Tristram's father; and Meredith is constantly 
pointing the finger of scorn at Sir Austin's theories 
and their application. In the first book, too, there 
are passages descriptive of the elder Shandy, which 
might almost have been written of Sir Austin, "It 
is the nature of an hypothesis," says Sterne in the 
character of his hero, "that it assimilates everything 
to itself, as proper nourishment," a sentence cer- 
tainly applicable to the Baronet's suspicious and 
condemnatory train of thought, when he was nurs- 
ing his wrath against Richard for marrying Lucy. 
" There are a thousand unnoticed openings which let 
a penetrating eye into a man's soul," says Sterne, 
thereby expressing an aphorism worthy of a place in 
"The Pilgrim's Scrip," and at the same time furnish- 
ing a terse anticipatory comment upon Sir Austin's 
unsuccessful endeavor to entrench himself in studied 
and unnatural reserve. 

The elder Caxton, whose name, by the way, was 
shortened from Augustine to the more familiar 
Austin, like the fathers of Tristram and of Richard, 
also used a system in bringing up his son. He had 



THE JOURNEYMAN 51 

a method, however, which stood in direct contrast 
with that of the lord of Raynham Abbey. Pisis- 
tratus was sent to school that by mingling with his 
fellows he might become a man, Richard was kept 
at home that he might escape the corruption which 
Sir Austin thought to be rife in educational institu- 
tions; the former was allowed the greatest freedom, 
the latter was under constant surveillance, for it was 
a fundamental theory with Sir Austin that *' young 
lads might by parental vigilance be kept secure 
from the Serpent until Eve sided with him — a 
period that might be deferred, he said." Both par- 
ents hoped to retain the confidence of their sons by 
inviting it at every opportunity, and by assisting, 
though not dictating, in the choice between good and 
evil. In carrying out the plan, Austin Caxton never 
for a moment forgot that he was dealing with a human 
being, and through this sanity of attitude he was able 
to keep his child as a companion until the end; but, 
in the words of Adrian Harley, "Sir Austin wished 
to be Providence to his son," and only at fleeting 
intervals entertaining "a thought that he was fight- 
ing with fate in his beloved boy," he failed at the 
crucial moment, and there was an end to true con- 
fidence between father and son. 

Yet Sir Austin deserves our sympathy. His love 
for Richard was really deep and strong, and he did 
nothing but what in his blindness he thought was for 
the best. Demon-ridden by the Great Shaddock 
doctrine, and marked by the "total absence of the 
humorous in himself (the want that most shut him 
out from his fellows)," he was unhappily without 



52 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

the faculty of laughter. "For a good wind of 
laughter," says Meredith, "had relieved him of 
much of the blight of self-deception, and oddness, 
and extravagance; had given him a heathier view^ 
of our atmosphere of life; but he had it not." It is 
not surprising that under such conditions a tragedy 
took place. The System must prevail, although the 
boy for whose good it was formulated should be sac- 
rificed to its exactions. Had Sir Austin but pos- 
sessed the clearer vision, clouded though it was, of 
Lady Blandish; or better still had the penetrating 
eye of the far-seeing Bessie Berry been his, he might 
have preserved his son alive. But he would not see. 
Ever declaring to himself that, so far as his son was 
concerned, all love and all wisdom were his own, he 
merited in the hour of his grief over his son's way- 
wardness and agony, exactly the same criticism 
which had been spoken of him many years before : 

"If immeasurable love were perfect wisdom, one 
human being might almost impersonate Providence 
to another. Alas! love, divine as it is, can do no 
more than lighten the house it inhabits — must take 
its shape, sometimes intensify its narrowness — can 
spiritualize, but not expel the old life-long lodgers 
above-stairs and below." 

Pity the Baronet deserves, no doubt, but his nature 
was seldom other than cold and hard. In the very 
crises of his son's life, he could steel himself to utter 
an aphorism; and by the irony of fate he character- 
ized himself most fully when he wrote, "A maker 
of Proverbs — what is he but a narrow mind, the 
mouthpiece of narrower?" These sayings of his 



THE JOURNEYMAN 53 

from that first startling statement, "I expect that 
woman will be the last thing civilized by man," to 
that final penetrating observation, "Which is the 
coward among us? He who sneers at the failings 
of Humanity!'* are never less than brilliant, and fre- 
quently strike at the roots of the folly and the mis- 
takes of mankind. Recalling them, the reader is 
again carried back to "The Caxtons," for the father 
of the hero in that book was engaged upon the com- 
position of "A History of Human Error." The 
absent-minded scholar and the analytic nobleman 
thus both turned their eyes upon the world about 
them, and put down the lessons they drew there- 
from, but one looked from within and was moved 
by sympathy and pity, while the other stood aloof 
and felt little but contempt and scorn. 

At one other point, certainly, there is a faint re- 
semblance to be found between Meredith and Bulwer, 
although it might not suggest itself, if the presence 
of larger and more striking similarities did not lead 
the reader to find analogies where perhaps none 
really exist. Nevertheless, the extreme deference 
paid by Mrs. Caxton to her husband, her ready ac- 
ceptance of every word of his as the utterance of in- 
carnate wisdom, remind one of the earlier attitude 
of Lady Blandish toward Sir Austin. Fortunately 
for Mrs. Caxton, no rude shock ever disturbed her 
admiration. Her husband, inferior as he was to the 
nobleman, was always simple and sincere, as simple 
and sincere, in fact, as the Vicar of Wakefield. 
Lady Blandish, on the other hand, was destined to 
a harsh awakening. The Autumn Primrose, as 



54 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Meredith called her love for Sir Austin, bloomed for 
the Baronet's pleasure, and more than once he 
seemed on the point of plucking it for his wearing, 
but the blighting frost of his egoism wrought in 
time its destructive work. During the first weeks of 
her stay at Raynham Abbey, Lady Blandish was 
awed into approval by the stupendous claims made 
for the System, nor would she permit herself to doubt, 
either when her heart went out to the modest loveli- 
ness of Lucy, or when in pity she gazed upon Richard 
lying pale and motionless, with fever on his cheeks 
and strange unseeing eyes. But when the nobleman 
hearing of Richard's deceit and disobedience, as he 
called it, endeavored still to be the Sage, still to 
maintain his pose as one who could be surprised by 
nothing in nature, then was the veil lifted somewhat. 
Daily, thereafter, she saw him more and more as he 
was, and at the end she could write with sane indig- 
nation to Austin Wentworth: 

" Oh ! how sick I am of theories, and Systems, and 
the pretensions of men! There was his son lying 
all but dead, and the man was still unconvinced of 
the folly he had been guilty of. I could hardly bear 
the sight of his composure. I shall hate the name 
of Science till the day I die. Give me nothing but 
commonplace, unpretending people!" 

But the chief victim of Sir Austin's strange per- 
version, the object of Lady Blandish's pity, and the 
butt of Adrian Harley's wit, Richard himself, is a 
study in character, not unlike that made by one of 
the founders of the English novel. Almost without 
(juestion, "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" may be 



THE JOURNEYMAN 55 

looked upon as a purified ''Tom Jones." Fielding 
in his chief work presented a hero as fully and as 
truthfully as Rousseau in his "Confessions" en- 
deavored to picture himself. That Fielding suc- 
ceeded, no reader denies; and attempts have been 
made, now and then, to gain renown in a similar 
way. But of the several authors who seem to owe 
a part of their inspiration to Fielding's frankness in 
portrayal, Meredith comes nearest to a reproduction 
of his' spirit. Meredith freely admits the natural 
impulses of his hero, and shows whither, under cer- 
tain conditions they would inevitably lead him. 
That is, Meredith dared to do, what Thackeray al- 
most feared to undertake. In the preface of " Pen- 
dennis," its writer remarked that since the death of 
Fielding, no writer of fiction had been permitted to 
depict a man as he really was. Instead, the hero 
had to be carefully draped and be given a conven- 
tional simper, since readers were determined not to 
hear what moved in the real world; what passed in 
society, in the clubs, college mess-rooms; what was 
the life, the talk of young men. Thus hampered, 
Thackeray felt that he had need to apologize for his 
frankness in drawing the character of Arthur Pen- 
dennis, and that he must ask the charitable favor 
of his readers for presenting the truth. This timid- 
ity on Thackeray's part— one hardly likes to call it 
cowardice— this deference to conventional ideas not 
yet wholly abandoned, is a state of mind which 
Meredith stigmatizes by the name of sentimental- 
ism; but Thackeray possibly had been made a trifle 
fearful by the cry of disapprobation which in 1847 



56 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

had greeted the pubHcation of *' Jane Eyre." Char- 
lotte Bronte Uving quietly in the rectory at Haworth 
had been too far removed from the stiff propriety 
of the cities to be trained in the elegant accomplish- 
ment of squeamishness, and had portrayed the nat- 
ural passions as they are, rather than as London 
then said that they must be assumed to be. Never- 
theless, limited as her opportunities for observation 
were, what Charlotte Bronte could do, she did; on 
the other hand what Thackeray felt he ought to do, 
he went nigh to shirking; and it is therefore not a 
little to the credit of Meredith that in the very be- 
ginning of his career as novelist he did not hesitate 
to follow the path of the woman rather than of the 
man. 

Readers are not now so daintily fastidious as they 
used to be, and they accept without adverse com- 
ment the baldest portrayal of the animal passions; 
but Charlotte Bronte and George Meredith were 
leaders in the renascence of the realistic presenta- 
tion of the natural instincts, subjects which no healthy 
mind now considers it beyond the right of the novelist 
to present. That they were for a time taboo to 
writers of fiction was perhaps partly due to the rise 
of a false modesty, but probably more to the fact 
that their calm and well-balanced treatment by 
Fielding and Richardson was brought into disre- 
pute by the salacious suggestions of Smollett and 
the "knowing" leers of Sterne. Under circumstances 
like these, certain chapters in "Jane Eyre" and in 
"The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" might have been 
expected to make readers uneasy, a condition of 



THE JOURNEYMAN 57 

mind which was by no means greatly soothed when 
Charles Readers "Griffith Gamit" appeared in 
1866. No wonder that shocked propriety of that 
time exclaimed, ** What are we coming to!" nor can 
we doubt that the destruction of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah would have been prophesied for the present day 
and generation, had anyone foreseen the unblush- 
ing immorality of many of our plays, and the shame- 
less coarseness of not a few of our popular novels. 
For the inexcusable length to which recent writers 
have gone, however, Charlotte Bronte and George 
Meredith and Charles Reade are not to blame. In 
that cyclic movement which the world exhibits as 
it makes its onward progress, this age is repeating to 
a certain extent the degraded artificiality of the Res- 
toration drama as compared with the frank natural- 
ness of the Elizabethan play, the evil mental condi- 
tions which permitted the reading of Smollett and 
Sterne as compared with the healthier attitude which 
found Richardson and Fielding acceptable. 

If the readers of Meredith's first novel really 
were over-shocked by the narration of Richard's 
adventures with the Enchantress, they could hardly 
deny that it had brought them face to face with an 
everyday truth. Depressing this experience may 
have been to some, and doubt as to the wisdom of 
the author's daring may have affected others; but no 
just person could have been blind to the fact that 
the colors had been laid upon the canvas by no un- 
certain hand. Nor even in the drawing of minor 
characters could any tendency toward carelessness 
or indift'erence be found. The strokes might be few, 



58 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

but they were sufficiently bold and telling to give the 
figures life and animation. Ripton Thompson, for 
instance, though sometimes regarded as an unsuc- 
cessful portraiture of vulgarity, is more than a mere 
foil to his high-born friend. A reading of his fight 
with Richard, and of the part which he played in 
the Bakewell comedy will carry any man back to 
his own boyhood days. His conduct in his father's 
office was natural to the last degree, and his follow- 
ing of Miss Random was, to a youth of his tempera- 
ment, inevitable. Nor is the subtile distinction which 
he made as to the propriety of his conduct in com- 
parison with Richard's, anything unusual. The 
specious argument by which he explained away his 
logical inconsistency, is known and repeated and 
acted upon still by nearly every young man whom 
one meets. Ripton's desire to watch over and pre- 
serve the purity of his headstrong companion, there- 
fore, is not to be ridiculed : rather one is touched by 
the pathos in his reply to Richard's scorn at his 
words of warning, " It would be different with me, 
because Richard, I'm worse than you." Such guar- 
dianship, such affectionate desire to protect, recalls 
William Dobbin's faithful following of George 
Osborne in "Vanity Fair." Even more, — as the 
crude, ungainly son of the grocer in Thames Street 
dared to worship Amelia Sedley at a distance, so 
Ripton Thompson found his mission in striving 
for Lucy Feverel's welfare. Indeed, the very words 
in which Meredith describes Ripton's awakening 
might have been written by Thackeray himself — 
even to the little moral with which they conclude: 



THE JOURNEYMAN 59 

"He spoke differently; he looked differently. He 
had the Old Dog's eyes in his head. They watched 
the door she had passed through; they listened for 
her, as dogs' eyes do. When she came in, bonneted 
for a walk, his agitation was dog-like. When she 
hung on her lover timidly and went forth, he fol- 
lowed without an idea of envy, or anything save the 
secret raptures the sight of her gave him, which are 
the Old Dog's own. For beneficent Nature re- 
quites him. His sensations cannot be heroic, but 
they have a fullness and a wagging delight as good 
in their way. And this capacity for humble, unaspir- 
ing worship has its peculiar guerdon. When Rip- 
ton comes to think of Miss Random now, what will 
he think of himself? Let no one despise the Old 
Dog. Through him doth Beauty vindicate her sex." 

Far more important than Ripton Thompson is the 
garrulous, large-hearted, simple-minded Bessie 
Berry. In that mad world where the inmates of 
Raynham Abbey played their many parts, she is 
almost the only well-balanced human being. The 
mention of her name, however, and the recollection 
of her doings immediately suggest a number of 
other characters in English fiction. In portraying 
her, Meredith used a method characteristic of Dick- 
ens, that of summing up a person in one grand, all- 
containing trait. As Tommy Traddles in "David 
Copperfield" possesses a sort of " hearth-broomy 
kind of expression," as Mrs. Fezziwig in " A Christ- 
mas Carol" is "one vast substantial smile." as Ben- 
son, Sir Austin's butler, is "the saurian eye," — al- 
though that designation also brings to mind De 



60 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Quincey's dubbing the coachman in *'The Glory of 
Motion" "a crocodile" — so is Mrs. Berry made to 
live and breathe before us as "the bunch of black 
satin." Coarse she is at times, as coarse as Sairey 
Gamp, as racy in her speech as Dame Quickly, and 
as slyly insinuative, but withal as sympathetic, as the 
nurse in "Romeo and JuHet." She is marked, too, 
by a pronounced interest in cooking which places her 
besides Mrs. Todgers in "Martin Chuzzlewit," 
while her common-sense ideas upon morality, and 
her shrewd observations upon life in general make 
her an own sister to Mrs. Poyser in "Adam Bede." 
We trust her, yes, we love her, the moment we 
meet her at the door of her lodging house in Ken- 
sington. Nor are we betrayed. She is the Dea 
ex machina of Richard^s life. Married she has 
been, and at the hands of her husband she has suffered 
much; but despite her sad experience, her ideas upon 
men and matrimony are safe and sane. One sight 
of Mrs. Mount enables her to analyze and label the 
woman a Bella Donna, a use of terms which, as 
Meredith remarks, would have startled that lady by 
its accuracy. Incisively penetrative in her under- 
standing of Sir Austin, she adequately sums up his 
character when she says to Lady Blandish, " A man 
that's like a woman, he's the puzzle o' life ! " Greater 
wisdom than is usually admitted, underlies her bridal 
gift to Richard's young wife; and a full knowledge 
of the world causes her to make no delay in hasten- 
ing to the Isle of Wight, when she hears that Lucy 
lies unprotected at the mercy of Brayder and Mount- 
falcon. Mrs. Berry's keenness of vision also shows 



THE JOURNEYMAN 61 

her that beyond a doubt all would be well if she could 
but bring Richard and Lucy together. In her at- 
tempt to assist in the consummation of her hope she 
makes her famous speech on the separation of hus- 
band and wife: 

"Three months dwellin' apart! That^s not mat- 
rimony, it's divorcinM what can it be to her but 
widowhood? Widowhood with no cap to show 
for it! And what can it be to you, my dear ? Think! 
you have been a bachelor three months! and a bach- 
elor man, he ain't a widow woman. . . . We* all 
know what checked prespiration is. Laugh away, 
I don't mind ye, I say again, we all do know what 
checked prespiration is. It fly to the lungs, it gives 
ye mortal inflammation and it carries ye off. Then 
I say checked matrimony is as bad. It fly to the 
heart, and it carries off the virtue that's in ye, and 
you might as well be dead!" 

After that how can one say, as has been said more 
than once, that Mrs. Berry simply wandered into 
"The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" from the show- 
box of Gadshill! Meredith did far more than imi- 
tate the creator of "David Copperfield." He bor- 
rowed a part of that writer's panoply, perhaps, but 
in the tilt he beat Dickens on his own ground. 

And what is to be said of Clare and Lucy ? They 
also are not unsuggestive of Dickens; yet the quiet 
grief with which Clare obeyed her mother's com- 
mands, and the tragic struggle which Lucy made 
against her fate, can never become a mere matter of 
laughter or contempt, a misfortune which has over- 
taken many a passage in Dickens, once looked upon 



62 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

as the perfection of pathetic writing. Critics say 
far too much, when they assert that the point of 
bathos is reached in the description of the death 
of httle Nell, for after more than half a century that 
chapter in "The Old Curiosity Shop" still rings true. 
Nevertheless, there is a dignity, a reserve in Mere- 
dith's treatment of Richard's watch beside his dead 
cousin, which protects the younger writer from seri- 
ous adverse criticism. A similar self-restraint ap- 
pears also in his description of Lucy's death, for she, 
too, must die, not because she is misunderstood, but 
because she must be broken on the wheel of Sir 
Austin's magnificent system. Hers was a stronger 
character than Clare's; too strong, indeed, to meet 
death in the same way. The deepest pathos of her 
life, therefore, is not in the agony of her last hours, 
but rather in that meeting with her husband when, 
rising to her noble forgiveness of his unfaithfulness, 
she is rent and torn in the very moment of triumph, 
by his blind and wilful persistence in a mistaken con- 
ception of honor. In that hour, the souls of Richard 
and Lucy lie bare before us; we are at the very springs 
of spiritual life; and we learn anew that the still small 
voice sometimes speaks to the heart of man as 
plainly from the words of the novelist as from the 
pages of Holy Writ. 

"The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" is a tragedy — 
a tragedy, indeed, in the Shakspearean manner. This 
means not simply that the reader is led into the 
presence of death, but that the heart-racking catas- 
trophe of the end is foreshadowed at the very begin- 
ning. The tragic note sounds with no uncertain 



THE JOURNEYMAN 63 

tone in the earliest pages, and from then on it is per- 
sistently repeated with increasing intensity until it 
becomes the knell tolling the few years of Lucy's 
troubled life. Not for a moment in reading the book, 
not even in its humorous scenes, is one allowed to 
deceive oneself with the hope that in some miraculous 
way the outcome may be happy. Instead, there 
seizes upon the reader that kind of frenzy which lays 
its grasp upon him as he watches the unrelenting 
advancement of the plot against Cordelia, or the 
ravening progress of the feud which deflowered the 
houses of Capulet and Montague. Convinced for 
the time that the woes of Richard and Lucy are real, 
one feels that one must turn back the wheels of fate, 
that the inevitable must not be. 

Powerful as Meredith must have seen that his first 
novel was, however, he did not again permit him- 
self to make an equally extensive incursion into the 
same field of writing. "The Tale of Chloe" is 
tragic, it is true, but nearly perfect as it is, still no 
more than a short story; "Rhoda Fleming" with its 
lesson that the consequences of sin are eternal, is 
pretty serious reading, but it is not tragedy, not at 
least in the technical sense of that term; the death 
neither of Roy Richmond nor of Nevil Beauchamp 
takes the novel in which each of those men appears, 
out of the realm of comedy; and although " Vittoria," 
"The Tragic Comedians" and "One of Our Con- 
querors" may seem to hover upon the borders of 
lands presided over by the tragic rather than the 
comic muse, it is clear that in comparison with 
"The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," all the succeed- 



64 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

ing novels form a group of which the homogeneity is 
much disturbed by any attempt to class the earlier 
work with them. 
r^ Meredith's second novel, therefore, "Evan Har- 
rington," stands in almost as great contrast with the 
book immediately preceding it as that with the 
writings of its author's apprenticeship. The tragic 
element is practically eliminated, for although 
Juliana Bonner's death brings about the union of 
the man whom she loves with the woman of his 
choice, her story awakens no more than a quickly 
passing impulse of pity. The woes of the unfortu- 
nate Susan Wheedle are but faintly outlined, and are 
included probably for no other reason than to show 
the kindliness of Evan's heart; and finally the unhap- 
py lot of the beautiful and attractive Caroline Strike 
is perhaps purposely but little more than mentioned, 
that the story of her temptation and escape may not 
seriously interfere with the gradual unfolding of 
Evan's rise to true manhood, or with the mirth-pro- 
voking treatment of the complications surrounding 
the Countess de Saldar. The book, indeed, is per- 
vaded by humor of every sort, the extravagant, 
the grotesque, the refined, the delicate, the subtle, 
and the funny, until it would seem that Meredith 
is on the point of breaking through the bounds of 
what in the drama would be called legitimate com- 
edy, and of permitting himself to revel for a time in 
the fields of hilarious farce. But as a matter of 
fact, he is ever mindful of the demands of true pro- 
portion; and consequently, never degenerating into 
the harlequin, he can force home, despite his fun, 



THE JOURNEYMAN 65 

the serious lesson of the hollow foolishness which lies 
in attempting to appear what one is not J 

Different as Meredith's first two novels are in 
most respects, however, the second is like the first 
to the extent of presenting three or four characters 
somewhat suggestive of those found in the writings 
of other authors. John Raikes, for instance, it has 
been said by some critic, might easily have been cre- 
ated by Thackeray; but such a statement shows a 
strange forgetfulness of the words and ways of Dick 
Swiveller in "The Old Curiosity Shop;" and cer- 
tainly the solicitous care and the deferential respect 
which Evan's old school-friend has for his much 
worn hat vividly recalls the outward appearance 
though not the swindling nature of Mr. Tigg, the 
shabby-genteel gentleman in "Martin Chuzzlewit." 
The Cogglesby brothers, too, unlike the Cheeryble 
twins as they are in many respects, must still sug- 
gest Nicholas Nickleby's benefactors, in their kind- 
ness of heart, their delight in dry jokes, and their 
sly plans for helping the deserving and circumvent- 
ing the insincere. The chapters in which these two 
men carry out a conspiracy to reduce the pride of 
old Harrington's daughters — a conspiracy only too 
successful since Andrew found himself caught in his 
own trap — is like Dickens almost at his best in the 
humorous; and the first chapter, also, in which the 
inn-keeper, the butcher, and the confectioner discuss 
the death of the tailor is reminiscent of Dickens, but 
of Dickens, rarified, sublimated, and refined. While 
the Lymport shopkeepers talk, the reader learns 
that the Great Mel, as the sartorial Melchisedec 



66 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Harrington was called, had a soul much above but- 
tons and would gladly have moved in aristocratic 
circles. Realizing that he could best attain this end 
by not making too many pretensions, he assumed a 
modesty which really irked his heart, a humility 
which was ever on the watch for opportunity, a kind 
of Uriah Heepism, so to speak, raised to the n'th 
power. Nevertheless there was nothing cringing in 
Mr. Melchisedec Harrington, Tailor of 183, Main 
Street, Lymport-on-the-Sea, for it must be remem- 
bered that Melchisedec had a Presence; and ac- 
cording to Meredith: 

" A Presence would seem to be a thing that directs 
the most affable appeal to our human weakness. . . . 
Beau Brummel, for instance, had a Presence. Many 
it is true, take a Presence to mean no more than a 
shirt-frill. . . . But that is to look upon language 
too narrowly." 

The wife of the Great Mel, has a far fainter Dick- 
ens flavor than he. The way in which she bullied 
Dandy is not without a suggestion of Quilp's treat- 
ment of Tom Scott, nor is her servant's devotion to 
her beyond a comparison with Tom's affection and 
admiration for the master by whom he was habitually 
beaten and abused. But Henrietta Maria Harring- 
ton, a woman endowed with a Port as her husband 
with a Presence, does not permit herself to be dis- 
missed with the mere statement that she faintly 
recalls a character in "The Old Curiosity Shop." 
She was a strong-minded, common-sense woman, 
perhaps best summed up in Dandy's epithet of 
"iron," a word which he frequently muttered when 



THE JOURNEYMAN 67 

he found himself reduced to subjection by the mere 
glance of her eye. Like Mrs. Berry in " The Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel," she is, with the possible ex- 
ception of Lady Jocelyn, the one sane person in the 
story of Evan Harrington from the time she stands 
unawed before the patronizing Lady Roseley until 
she comes to think it fully in keeping with a Port to 
look after the management of Tom Cogglesby's 
house. She might have been a little more gentle 
with Evan the night after his return from his father's 
grave, a greater display of affection at that time 
would have been no weakness on her part; but true 
to her nature she "gave her cheek for his kiss, for 
she never performed the operation, but kept her 
mouth, as she remarked, for food and speech, and 
not for slobbering mummeries." 

Mrs. Harrington knew her children, even as with 
penetrating insight she knew all men and women 
whom she met. In her daughters she expected to 
find neither sense of mind nor greatness of soul, 
for they were true descendants of their father; but 
in Evan her hope was centred, although she was 
far from being blind to the knowledge that he could 
not win his battles unaided. Determining, there- 
fore, that her son should not be ruined by what she 
termed a "parcel of fools," she appeared more rigid 
and less kind than perhaps her heart prompted. 
Such reserve, however, might be expected to go 
with the commanding strength of character which 
showed itself in the calm scorn irresistibly quelling 
Tom Ogglesby's irascibility, and in the self-respect- 
ing motherhood reaching out to save her son from 



68 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

hypocrisy and deceit. There was more than dignity, 
there was grandeur in her bearing and in her soul 
when she appeared at the picnic in the grounds of 
Beckley Court. Evan, she feU, must be saved at 
any cost to his pride. 

"There was in her bosom a terrible determination 
to cast a devil out of the one she best loved. For 
this purpose, heedless of .all pain to be given, or of 
impropriety, she had come to speak publicly, and 
disgrace and humiliate, that she might save him 
from the devils that had ruined his father. 'My 
lady,' said the terrible woman, thanking her in reply 
to an invitation that she might be seated, 'I have 
come for my son. I hear that he has been playing 
the lord in your house, my lady. I humbly thank 
your ladyship for your kindness to him, but he is 
nothing more than a tailor's son, and is bound to a 
tailor himself that his father may be called an honest 
man. I am come to take him away. 

If the reader of these words has any adequate 
conception of the circumstances under which they 
were uttered, if, indeed, he has even a remote under- 
standing of the woman who said them, he has con- 
vincingly borne in upon him the fundamental truth 
in Meredith's philosophy of life. So, indeed, Mrs. 
Mel is more than a mere character in a novel, she 
is more than what critics call a type, she is rather 
an embodiment of that perfect sincerity before which, 
in the long run, artificiality and sham must always 
go down. 

In strong contrast with their mother stand the 
three daughters, Caroline Strike, Harriet Cogglesby, 



THE JOURNEYMAN 69 

and Louisa, Countess de Saldar. Inheriting their 
father's social ambition to rise in society, they 
emancipated themselves as far as possible from 
what they called the Demigorgon of Tailordom and 
strove with courage and pertinacity to make their 
footing firm in aristocratic circles. Much as the 
reader may laugh at them, however, he feels at times 
that Caroline Strike is not undeserving of pity. The 
beautiful wife of a brutal husband, she is saved 
from disgrace through the one sincere trait in her 
character, her love for her brother. Faintly sketched 
as she is, she plays her part with a stately sweet- 
ness which makes the story of her life pathetic in 
spite of all her failings. Her next younger sister, 
Harriet, the wife of the wealthy brewer, Andrew Cog- 
glesby, is even more lightly drawn. Unendowed 
with the beauty of her elder sister, and lacking in 
the strategical power of the Countess, she was con- 
tent to remain in the background, to sacrifice herself 
for the good of the cause, and to furnish funds for the 
campaign in which the daughters Harrington hoped 
to vindicate their right to forget their humble birth. 
In the siege thus laid to the citadel of society, 
the Countess de Saldar was the general. Attractive, 
vivacious, far-seeing, and cautious, she knew where 
to marshal her forces, how to place her artillery, and 
when to fly the flag of truce. Her very success 
wins our approval ; and the reader feels almost guilty 
of treason as he breaks into irresistible laughter, 
when the father, whom she had denied, was pitilessly 
served up to her at the dinner in Beckley Court, or 
when the awful catastrophe of her mother's unex- 



70 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

pected appearance at Lady Jocelyn's picnic, sub- 
verted her plans and spiked her guns. The Countess 
de Saldar has been called "the most consummate 
liar in literature," but this, as Meredith said in an- 
other connection, is to look upon language too nar- 
rowly. Her perversion of the truth was too artistic to 
be regarded as mere lying; rather let it be called a 
poetic idealization of unattractive fact. But if 
the generalship of the Countess aw^akens admiration 
in the hours of siege and of attack, it wins even 
greater applause, when in unbending dignity she with- 
drew from a well-fought, if unsuccessful battlefield. 
It was not in her nature to admit defeat. Repulsed 
from one position, she marched away, with colors 
flying, to recruit her forces at another vantage ground. 
Her letter from Rome showed her occupying a new 
eminence, ambitious, unconquered, and courageous 
still. 

The Countess has only one peer in English litera- 
ture; Becky Sharp in "Vanity Fair." As Thack- 
eray's interesting heroine, forgetting that her mother 
was an opera girl, used to say that her maternal 
ancestors, the Entrechats, were a noble family of 
Gascony, so the Countess sunk the identity of the 
Great Mel in Abraham Harrington of Torquay; as 
Becky took advantage of a certain lack of gallantry 
in Jos Sedley to make him her lover, so Louisa de 
Saldar boldly drew Harry Jocelyn from a group of 
scoffing critics, and taught him to fetch and carry at 
her will. Again as the governess in Queen's Crawley 
determined to make friends with everyone around 
her, who could at all interfere with her comfort, so 



THE JOURNEYMAN 71 

the tailor's daughter at Beckley Court undertook to 
make capture of all who could in anyway assist or 
prevent her making her position sure. As Miss 
Sharp overreached herself in marrying Rawdon 
Crawley, so the Countess now and then, taking ad- 
vantage of what seemed to offer firm footing, found 
herself upon treacherous ground. And thus the 
comparison of character and plot might be con- 
tinued even to those last scenes in which Mrs. 
Rawdon Crawley, born Sharp, betook herself to 
deeds of charity, went to church regularly and placed 
her name upon subscription lists for the Destitute 
Orangeman, the Neglected Washer-woman, and the 
Distressed Muffin-man, while the Countess de 
Saldar found a haven and a refuge in a religion 
which, according to her own words, gathers all in 
its arms, not even excepting tailors. 

Despite the likeness between the two women, the 
Countess is far less repellent than Becky. Either of 
them, it is true, might unsheath her claws and mark 
one with a cat-like scratch; but their ways were 
different. Becky was careless whom she hurt, if the 
injured person could not retaliate; the Countess 
with, a certain lady-like magnanimity exhibited her 
weapons only to keep some envious woman in well- 
disciplined subjection. Still further Becky was an 
egoist who sacrificed everything and everybody to 
her own ambition, while the Countess, gathering up 
her two sisters, her brother, and the memory of her 
dead father, endeavored to carry them all with her 
to a secure and lasting niche in high society. In the 
attainment of their ambition both of the women 



72 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

failed, yet while the reader feels that Thackeray 
meted out to Becky her proper deserts, he wonders if 
Meredith did not suffer an occasional qualm for not 
permitting the Countess to remain master of the situ- 
ation at Beckley Court. Such a triumph would have 
been hardly more than poetic justice due that lady's 
adroit and consummate genius. 

As studies in character, Mrs. Mell and her titled 
daughter are of such importance as to make it a 
matter of some surprise that neither Evan Harring- 
ton himself nor the two women who regarded him 
with romantic affection approach anywhere near 
being unique. Nevertheless, the reason for the ex- 
istence of the novel rests first of all in its presentation 
of the struggle which a young man undergoes, when 
for good and almost sufficient reasons he would like 
to appear other than he is; and also in its setting 
the not unimportant problem of what a young 
woman shall do, when her heart has been given to 
the keeping of a man socially her inferior. Evan's 
nature even in its undeveloped state partook suffi- 
ciently of his mother's sturdy sincerity to earn for 
him from the angry Countess the frequent accusa- 
tion of being but a Dawley — an epithet by which the 
lady meant that her brother was willing to remain on 
a level with the commonplace family from which the 
Great Mel had presumably raised his wife when he 
made her Mrs. Harrington. Partly moved by his 
sister's prodding, but influenced still more by the 
fact that he had fallen in love with the daughter of 
Sir Franks Jocelyn, Evan wavered between the de- 
sire to call himself a gentleman, and the wish to be 



THE JOURNEYMAN 73 

loyal to truth and wi'ite himself a tailor. Nor does 
Meredith permit his readers to feel that Evan was 
called upon to make any insignificant choice. It in- 
volved a question of moral strength; on the young 
man's decision his future rise or fall is so plainly made 
to depend, that one breathes a sigh of relief when 
one learns that Evan has determined to make his 
way to Mr. Goren's unattractive London shop. If 
by so doing he in any way ceased to be a gentleman, 
he at least showed himself a man. 

The struggle through which Rose Jocelyn passed 
in becoming reconciled to her lover's calling was 
hardly less significant than Evan's own. But her 
native good sense and strength of character did not 
fail her in the crucial moment; despite an occa- 
sional feeling of repugnance to becoming a tailor's 
wife, she showed herself worthy of the man who 
loved her. Unfortunately, circumstances for a time 
forced Evan to appear a dastard even to her, and 
their engagement, as a result, seemed irrevocably 
broken. For artistic reasons the bond had to be 
reknit, but it is disappointing to find that Mere- 
dith's hand suddenly lost its cunning, and that the 
first four thoroughly satisfying acts of the comedy, 
as its author calls it, are followed by a group of scenes 
which it is scarcely too harsh to speak of as cheap 
and commonplace. Meredith's solution of his 
concluding problem is as little satisfactory as the 
closing chapters of "The Vicar of Wakefield" where 
Goldsmith, suddenly seeming to realize that he had 
before him a Gordian knot of his own weaving, 
abruptly and unexpectedly struck it through, be- 



74 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

cause he lacked the patience and, possibly, the in- 
genuity necessary to its untying. 

In the same way Juliana Bonner's death and the 
influences which it set in motion seem hardly more 
than a sorry makeshift to unite the parted lovers. 
Just why Meredith introduced the young woman in 
the first place is hardly clear. Evidently he did not 
care for her and apologized more than once for her 
existence. It is true that she is faintly suggestive 
of Richard FevereFs cousin Clare, probably for no 
other reason than because she was an invtdid, but 
on the whole she was a despicable little creature and 
the way in which she gloated over Evan's bodily 
strength and physical attractiveness makes her at 
times positively repulsive. Meredith's chivalry now 
and then forced him to present her in such a light 
as to awaken a glimmer of pity; but in general it 
must be admitted that a reader feels little better 
than shocked to have the likeness of Juliana Bonner 
hang in the same gallery with portraits of Lucy 
Desborough, Clara Middletown, and Diana War- 
wick. Yet, the ending, despite its weakness, does 
not lessen to any great extent the satisfaction and 
delight, with which one recalls those early scenes 
made memorable by the presence of the tall and 
stately Henrietta Maria Harrington, the versatile 
and vivacious Countess de Saldar, the eccentric Tom 
Cogglesby, and the beautiful Caroline Strike. 

"Evan Harrington" first appeared in the popular 
magazine called Once A Week, and ran from Febru- 
ary 11 to October 13, 1860. It was reprinted the 
following year; and the story proved enough more 



THE JOURNEYMAN 75 

successful than "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel'* 
to create a demand for a second edition in 1866. 
Meanwhile, of course, Meredith did not cease writing; 
but he did turn aside for a time from prose to poetry, 
and in 1862 published a volume entilted "Modern 
Love and Poems of the English Roadside." Of 
the twenty-three pieces of varying length in that 
book but four are now included in sets of Meredith's 
presumably complete works — "Juggling Jerry" and 
"The Old Chartist," both in method reminding one 
of Browning, " Marian," a lyric recalling Tennyson's 
early studies in portraiture, and, most important of 
all, the cycle of fifty sixteen-line stanzas collectively 
given the title which stood as the leading name of 
the whole volume. Upon its appearance the book 
was so severely handled by The Spectator as to pro- 
voke a sharp letter of protest from Swinburne, who 
did not hesitate to say that no man then living had 
ever turned out a more perfect piece of writing than 
the forty-seventh poem of the series entitled "Mod- 
ern Love." This rather sweeping statement, it 
should be remembered, was made at a time when 
Tennyson was felt by most readers to be the greatest 
writer since Milton; and Browning, by at least a few, 
to be the greatest since Shakespeare. 

That Swinburne's challenge was made not without 
reason, is best proved, perhaps, by letting the poem 
mentioned speak for itself. 

"We saw the swallows gathering in the sky, 
And in the osier-isle we heard them noise. 
We had not to look back on summer joys 
Or forward to a summer of bright dye; 



76 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

But in the largeness of the evening earth 

Our spirits grew as we went side by side. 

The hour became her husband and my bride. 

Love that had robbed us so, thus blessed our dearth! 

The pilgrims of the year waxed very loud 

In multitudinous chatterings, as the flood 

Full brown came from the West, and like pale blood 

Expanded to the upper crimson cloud. 

Love that had robbed us of immortal things 

This little moment mercifully gave, 

Where I have seen across the twilight wave 

The swan sail with her young beneath her wings. 

In accordance with just what theory of selection 
the remaining score of poems in the volume was 
afterwards suppressed is not at all clear. Some, 
it is true, show but little improvement over the 
"Poems'' of 1851, and for that reason were perhaps 
rightly rejected; but on the other hand two or 
three are not unworthy of a place beside the best 
lyrics produced during the latter half of the nine- 
teenth century. "Margaret's Bridal Eve," for in- 
stance, led Swinburne to say in his "Essays and 
Studies" that it stands not very far below Rossetti's 
"Sister Helen," a poem which the same critic ranked 
as being "out of all sight or thought of expression 
the greatest ballad in modern English." In spite 
of such praise Meredith ruthlessly omitted the 
piece from all later collections of his poetry, and 
with as little hesitation pruned away the nearly 
flawless verses called "The Meeting." It is inter- 
esting to learn that this particular poem received 
the distinction of being praised by Thackeray at a 
time when he was almost a dictator in the world of 



THE JOURNEYMAN 77 

English letters. The great novelist and editor said 
to Peacock who showed him the lines in manuscript, 
"They have the true ring about them. Were it not 
my fate to make enemies of so many of my contribu- 
tors by not always being able exactly to meet their 
views, I should ask you to let your friend fill many 
pages of the Cornhill/' These were no insignifi- 
cant words, but, flattering as they were, they seem, 
when one takes the subject of "The Meeting" into 
consideration, to exhibit Thackeray in the same 
unfortunate light as does the introduction to "Pen- 
dennis" — that is, suffering from an obsession of 
timidity. At all events the poem appeared for the 
first time not in Cornhill, but in Once A Week, where 
in compensation for its rejection by Thackeray, it 
was illustrated by Sir John Millais. 

THE MEETING 

The old coach-road through a common of furze 

With knolls of pine ran white; 
Berries of autumn, with thistles and burrs 

And spider-threads, droop'd in the light. 

The light in a thin blue veil peered sick; 

The sheep grazed close and still; 
The smoke of a farm by a yellow rick 

Curled lazily under a hill. 

No fly shook the round of the silver net; 

No insect the swift bird chased; 
Only two travellers moved and met 

Across that lazy waste. 

One was a girl with a babe that throve, 

Her ruin and her bliss; 
One was a youth with a lawless love 

Who clasped it the more for this. 



78 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

The girl for her babe hummed prayerful speech. 

The youth for his love did pray; 
Each cast a wistful look on each; 

And either went their way. 

From these quotations at least two conclusions may 
be safely drawn, that Meredith was no mere poetaster, 
and that his work in verse showed a considerable 
growth in 1862 beyond what it had been ten years 
before. Still, although poems by Meredith appeared 
now and then in the magazines, he did not see fit 
to collect them into a volume until twenty years 
had gone by. On the other hand, beginning in 1864, 
he published three novels in three successive years, 
"Sandra Belloni," "Rhoda Fleming," and "Vit- 
toria." Of these the third is connected with the first 
in much the same way as Thackeray's '* Virginians" 
is related to "Henry Esmond." The heroine, 
Emilia Alessandra Belloni, however, is the same in 
both stories; and the steady growth of her character 
is continuously kept before the reader instead of its 
being presented at two contrasting periods of her 
life, as was Thackeray's method with Beatrix Es- 
mond. Nevertheless, Meredith's two novels pre- 
sent several points of difference. "Sandra Belloni" 
was originally called "Emiha in England," a title 
which it kept until 1887, and which indeed it should 
have retained, since it presents the experience of an 
Italian exile's daughter. "Vittoria," or as it might 
better have been called "Emilia in Italy," relates 
the events in the life of the same young woman 
after her arrival in her father's native land, and the 
identification of herself with the unsuccessful at- 



THE JOURNEYMAN 79 

tempt which that country made in 1849 to throw off 
the Austrian yoke. In the two novels deahng with 
the hfe of Emiha Belloni, therefore, peaceful Eng- 
land is set off against troubled Italy, society small- 
talk against political intrigue, enthusiasm for art 
against devotion to country, youthful sentiment 
against womanly affection, ridiculous scenes pro- 
vocative of laughter against grim incidents inspir- 
ing horror, and pictures almost wholly lacking in 
tragic elements against those which are strongly 
colored by sorrow and bloodshed. 

But if ''Sandra Belloni" stands in noticeably 
strong contrast to its sequel, its similarity to "Evan 
Harrington" is hardly less remarkable. In fact, 
had Meredith's third novel been for any reason 
published anonymously, its authorship would have 
been immediately suspected. The three daughters 
and the son of the Lymport tailor simply reappear 
as the children of the City of London merchant, at 
least so far as there is concern with their social am- 
bition or with the ascendency which the three sisters 
in either novel had over their only brother. Nor 
is the truth of this comparison weakened by the 
daughters of Samuel Pole being less strongly dif- 
ferentiated than those of Melchisedec Harrington, 
or ])y the fact that Evan Harrington in proving 
himself a man rose, while Wilfred, never becoming 
wholly sincere, steadily declined. That many of 
the minor characters in both novels should be much 
alike is of course little surprising, for Lady Gosstre, 
Lady Chillingworth, the Hon, Mrs. Bayruffle, and 
even Edward Buxley and possibly Tracy Running- 



80 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

book must have moved in the same social circle 
with Lady Jocelyn, Mrs. Harrington, and Drum- 
mond Forth. In addition to this likeness in char- 
acter drawing, there is also a similarity of incident 
too striking to be overlooked. The picnic on Bes- 
worth lawn is essentially a repetition of that which 
occurred at Beckley Court, even to the placing of the 
superior guests upon an eminence apart from the 
common crowd. The supper also in which the deli- 
cate feelings of the sisters Pole were scourged by 
the vulgar Mrs. Chump inevitably suggests the dinner 
at which the Countess de Saldar and Caroline Strike 
writhed beneath the lash of hearing their father's 
memory bandied about as a thing for sport and 
laughter. 

Now and then, too, in "Sandra Belloni*' Mere- 
dith seems to hark even further back than to ''Evan 
Harrington," since Braintop's admiration for Sandra 
is not wholly unsuggestive of Ripton Thompson's 
worship of Lucy; and Mrs. Chump occasionally re- 
calls Mrs. Berry. But in neither case is there any 
strong appeal made to our sympathy. Braintop, in 
consequence, never appears other than foolish and 
silly, nor Mrs. Chump other than common and of- 
fensive. The latter, however, is of interest from 
another point of view, for she is a study in caricature 
after Dickens's broadest style. Early pictured as 
"a shock of blue satin to the eye" and afterwards 
characterized as "a simmering pot of emerald 
broth," she lives before us by virtue of Dickens's 
method of concentrating upon a striking trait. Her 
speech as represented by Meredith is hardly realistic 



THE JOURNEYMAN 81 

or convincing in itself; but it suddenly takes on 
versimilitude when the exasperated Adela Pole 
bursts out with her characterization of the woman's 
talk. "Her brogue! Do you remember it? It is 
not simply Irish. It's Irish steeped in brine. It's 
pickled Irish!" Of course Dickens would not have 
written in just that way, but his custom of portray- 
ing a person by making three or four ridiculous 
strokes of the pen has been pretty closely imitated. 
In drawing Mrs. Chump, Meredith, it must be con- 
ceded, availed himself of the privilege of being far- 
cical ; but in so doing he barely escaped being repul- 
sive. Nevertheless, vulgar, coarse, and repellent as 
Mrs. Chump is, there is sufficient reason for her 
existence since she is a righteous retribution — or to 
use the diction of criticism, an artistic nemesis, 
visited upon the Pole sisters for their assumption of 
a pose which shows them to be only less vulgar, 
coarse, and repellent than she through their pos- 
session of a greater subtilty in self-expression. 

Arabella, Cornelia, and Adela Pole stand as the 
embodiment of that attitude of mind which, know- 
ing itself to be wholly commonplace, still undertakes 
to deceive not only the world but itself also into the 
belief that it is possessed of innate grace and charm. 
This mental condition and the conduct to which it 
gives rise, Meredith looked upon as a phase of what 
he terms ''sentimentalism." As expressed in the 
three sisters, it shows that they felt themselves to be 
in exclusive possession of the Nice Feelings and un- 
surpassed in comprehension of the Fine Shades. 
This confidence on their part led to a proceeding 



82 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

which they called "Mounting/' That is, conscious 
of what they regarded as dross in those surrounding 
them and consequently to a certain extent contempt- 
uous, they none the less were not unwilling to make 
use of others if by so doing they might advance 
themselves. "To be brief," wrote Meredith, "they 
were very ambitious damsels aiming at they knew 
not exactly what, save that it was something so wide 
that it had not a name, and so high in air that no one 
could see it." For this reason they endured Mr. 
Pericles because of his wealth, they associated with 
Lady Gosstre because of her title and assured social 
position, and they decided to patronize Emilia hoping 
by means of her wonderful voice to become known 
as a sort of triple modern Maecenas, a kind of 
earthly agent of the Muses. 

Nor did those more closely related to them escape 
paying tribute to their ambition. Their father's 
success as merchant was the more gratifying, since 
it rendered possible their escape from a city circle; 
but they had to admit that his unaspirated speech 
made them shudder. They thought themselves sin- 
cere when they professed to love their father, but 
they could not bring themselves to look upon his 
grammar as paternal. Their brother, too, an in- 
valided Cornet recently returned from India, they 
loved tenderly and admired when necessary. But 
coming to the conclusion that valor is not an in- 
tellectual quahty, they soon exhausted their sensa- 
tions concerning his deeds of arms, and fancied that 
he had served their purpose. All of which goes to 
show that they were certainly lacking in sincerity, 



THE JOURNEYMAN 83 

not to say in truth and honor. Meredith therefore 
does not hesitate to subject the Fine Shades and the 
Nice Feehngs to frequent scourgings which would 
awaken pity if the punishment meted out were not 
so richly deserved. 

Wilfred Pole, the brother, was also a sentimental- 
ist, and differed from his sisters only in presenting 
another aspect of the same insincerity. Imagining 
himself to be in love with Emilia, because he was 
desirous of sharing in the renown which her voice 
must eventually bring her, he was not perfectly sure 
that her birth and personality would permit of her 
being introduced to the members of the social cir- 
cle in which he moved. Again, partly to please 
his father, but more to gain the satisfaction which 
would redound from a union with a woman of title, 
he proposed marriage to Lady Charlotte Chilling- 
worth. When she accepted him as her lover, he 
found himself in a dilemma. Equally pledged to 
two women, he could not decide to which he should 
remain faithful. Seeking release from each, he 
learned that neither would give him up, Emilia be- 
cause she could not believe him insincere, Lady 
Charlotte because she was determined to keep him 
at all hazards. Thus Wilfred cut a ridiculous figure; 
and the reader feels artistic satisfaction, when at 
the close of "Sandra Belloni," the sentimental youth 
was unexpectedly jilted by both the singer and the 
lady. 

But his woful experience taught him no lasting 
lesson. Reappearing in the novel called " Vittoria,'' 
he surrounded himself in Italy with conditions 



84 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

strikingly similar to those which had brought about 
his humiUation in England. After becoming en- 
gaged to the Austrian Countess Anna von Lenken- 
stein he again met Emilia whom three years of study 
had made a cantatrice of no ordinary ability. No 
more truly in love with her than before, he felt his 
earlier ambition revive, and attempted to repeat 
his trick of paying addresses to one woman while 
still bound in honor to another. Less uniformly suc- 
cessful in his second experiment than in his first, he 
soon found the tables completely turned upon him. 
He received but cold treatment from Emilia and a 
colder dismissal from the Countess. Truly, senti- 
mentalism led its possessor through thorny paths; 
and Wilfred Pole must have felt it a hard school 
in which he learned the lesson, that he who will 
not when he may, may not when he will. Surely 
if the victim of his own insincerity awakened the 
laughter of the gods in his early disappointment, 
Olympus must have rung with their shouts when 
they gazed upon the boy-like chagrin with which 
he received his second breeching. 

In strong contrast with the Pole sisters and their 
brother stands Emilia Alessandra Belloni, Mere- 
dith's first minute and elaborate presentation of 
admirable womanhood. Endowed by her creator 
with all the graces, all the virtues, and all the powers, 
youth and beauty, simplicity and honesty, inspira- 
tion and genius, Sandra was a favorite with Mere- 
dith at the beginning and, according to those who 
claim to know, was never in the author's mind re- 
placed as a study of ideal womanliness by any char- 



THE JOURNEYMAN 85 

acter of the later novels. Confident of her charm, 
yet never in any sense egotistical, she offended only 
the hypercritical when she offered to sing, assum- 
ing without question the desire of her audience 
to listen. Simple as Nature itself, she failed to com- 
prehend the subtle reasoning which caused Cor- 
nelia Pole to conclude that the woods, the night, and 
the moon gave inspiration not elsewhere found. As 
sure as the Lady in *' Comus " that virtue is its own 
protection, she saw no cause for concealing her early 
acquaintance with Captain Gambier, nor for hesi- 
tating in later years to visit the offices of the disgust- 
ing Pericles. 

Practical, too, she was calmly unconscious of the 
humor in her account of her careful preservation 
of the potatoes which her angry father used as 
ammunition against her first lover. Unashamed 
of those whom she knew, she impulsively intro- 
duced Purcell Barrett, the poor organist, nor knew 
that she had erred, even when the sisters gave him 
the three shades of distance, called respectively 
from the coldness of their recognition, Pole, Polar, 
and North Pole. Simple and sincere herself, she 
expected to find others no more complex or divided 
in mind than she, and in consequence, not for a 
moment did she suspect Wilfred as implying less 
than he said, when she sat with him beside the white- 
twisting fall of Wilming Weir. Unsuspicious of his 
restless shallowness, she saw no reason to bind him 
by promise. He loved her, she thought, as she 
loved him, and two souls so loving had no need of 
spoken oath. Thoroughly convinced, therefore, 



86 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

of the righteousness of her behef in her lover, she 
could see nothing strange or unwarrantable in her 
going to Samuel Pole for the purpose of asking his 
consent to her marriage with his son. No reader can 
be much surprised at the effect which her uncon- 
ventional methods had upon the London merchant; 
but the ludicrous conduct of the man when the fear 
comes upon him that Emilia is insane, makes neither 
her nor her pleadings in any degree ridiculous to us. 
Despite her simple, trusting nature, however, 
Emilia did not lack in depth or in strength of char- 
acter. True, she was struck down at the revelation 
of Wilfred Pole's perfidy, when Lady Chillingworth, 
intending to work ultimate kindness by means of 
present cruelty arranged that the girl should hear 
her lover's disavowal of any affection for her; but 
upon her recovery, delayed though it was by her 
other misfortunes, she adjusted herself to circum- 
stances in a way which showed that her almost 
girlish conduct was the mere surface play of a truly 
estimable womanliness. Rendered somewhat less 
impulsive by her unhappy experiences, she grew 
more analytical of herself and of others, and finally 
came to see that she had the right to ask release from 
a promise which kept her away from Italy, and upon 
receiving a refusal, to break that promise herself, 
in accordance with the dictates of duty and honor. 
This marked a decided development in her char- 
acter; still, the reader is startled by the consummate 
deed of retaliation which closed her life in England. 
Poetic justice, however, was no more than fulfilled 
in I^ady Chillingworth's being forced to hear Wilfred 



The journeyman s? 

Pole make as thorough a repudiation of her as he 
had formerly made of Emilia. Still it must not be 
overlooked that her ladyship rose to the occasion. 
With unconquerable aplomb she moved forward to 
say, "I like a hand that can deal a good stroke. I 
conceived you to be a mere little romantic person and 
correct my mistake." The words are wise and fitted 
the situation. Moreover, the thought which they 
expressed may stand for that which must exist in 
many a reader's mind. Had Emilia left England 
without performing that act of chastisement, she 
would indeed have appeared but a mere little ro- 
mantic person. The stroke as delivered, however, 
gave balance to her character and at the same time 
formed a fitting climax to the book which tells the 
story of her early life. Without it, Meredith's third 
novel would have been far weaker than his second; 
with it "Sandra Belloni" is distinctly stronger than 
"Evan Harrington" and certainly not unworthy of 
the hand which wrote "The Ordeal of Richard 
Feverel." 

The opening chapter of "Vittoria" presented 
Emilia in new surroundings. She, however, was un- 
changed save that to the attributes which had made 
her admirable were now added a breadth of under- 
standing and a perfection of vision which placed 
her character in full and stable equipoise. In 
"Sandra Belloni" she was always beautiful and 
attractive, in "Vittoria" she was stately and com- 
manding. At the close of her three-year study in 
the Milan Conservatory of Music, not only her 
voice but her womanhood as well rose from the 



88 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

chrysalis stage of youth, and hovered brilliantly 
above the hearts and souls of Young Italy. Patriot- 
ism and heroism led her in spite of counter-edict and 
command, to sing the song which was to precipitate 
the uprising against Austrian oppression. Had 
the minds of those who listened, possessed but a part 
of the wisdom which was hers, the unification of 
Italy would have been immediately secured; but 
her hearers convinced that the conclusions of 
man's laborious intellectual study are superior to 
those of woman's quick insight, made the half- 
hearted response which ended in nothing but a 
reign of terror and useless bloodshed. Nor did fate 
permit Emilia to escape the havoc which the blind- 
ness and timidity of men permitted to ensue. Never- 
theless, the picture which Meredith gives of her 
at the very close of "Vittoria" shows that strength 
of mind, greatness of heart, and nobility of soul 
were hers. 

"Merthyr delivered the burden of death. Her 
soul had crossed the darkness of the river of death 
in that quiet agony preceding the revelation of her 
Maker's will, and she drew her dead husband to her 
bosom, and kissed him on the eyes and forehead, 
not as one who had quite gone away from her but 
as one who lay upon another shore whither she would 
come. The manful friend, ever by her side, saved 
her by his absolute trust in her fortitude to bear the 
burden of the great sorrow undeceived, and to walk 
with it to its last resting place on earth unobstructed. 
Clear knowledge of her, the issue of reverent love, 
enabled him to read her unequalled strength of 



THE JOURNEYMAN 89 

nature, and to rely on her fidelity to her highest 
mortal duty in a conflict with extreme despair." 

On the whole, "Vittoria," from some points of 
view at least, is unique among Meredith's works. 
It is that author's only historical novel, the only one 
of which the scenes are laid entirely out of England 
and of which the characters are almost exclusively 
foreign to Meredith's native land. It seems not to 
have been, nor to be, very popular; and the statement 
that it was the fruit of a visit to Italy during the Aus- 
tro-Italian war has been met more than once by 
the semi-sarcastic remark that readers would have 
been better pleased had Meredith stayed at home. 
This patronizing bit of criticism, was due of course, 
not so much to fact as to the brilliancy of the 
writer who first uttered it, since the novel appeared 
in The Fortnightly Review from January 1 to Decem- 
ber 1, 1866, at the very time when, acting as Italian 
correspondent for The London Morning Post, Mere- 
dith was assumed to be collecting material for a 
book already written. However that may be, the 
failure of "Vittoria" to win ready acceptance from 
its author's admirers may be due to its being more 
emphatically a novel of incident than any of his 
other books; for readers of Meredith are devoted to 
him, not because he can tell a story, but because he 
gives careful and minute studies of character. 

If Meredith intended to write a novel which should 
strongly attract lovers of exciting action, he seems 
to have failed in his purpose, not perhaps be- 
cause the book itself is in any way undeserving 
of success, but probably because readers desiring 



90 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

that kind of book had come to the conclusion 
that the author of ''Evan Harrington" or of "San- 
dra Belloni" could hardly write to please them. 
If such really was the case, they stood in their own 
light, for, as a matter of fact, there is an onrush 
in the several chapters presenting the events im- 
mediately preceding the abortive uprising, and in 
those relating the flight of Emilia, which must carry 
readers to the end. Moreover, there is a greater 
breadth and freedom of drawing than in any of 
Meredith's earlier books; and, indeed, it might be 
held with some show of truth that he never again 
permitted himself equal liberty. Be that as it may, 
the chief defect, apparent to every reader, is that 
the great number of characters — there are one hun- 
dred and nine — crowd the pages to such an extent 
that by the hopeless confusion of Austrians, Italians, 
and English; men, women, and children; patriots, 
traitors, and enemies; poets, composers, and sing- 
ers; nobles, commons, and servants, one is both 
blinded and deafened, and is sometimes compelled 
to pause and wonder what it is all about. 

As the last novel written during Meredith's period 
of journeyman work, "Vittoria," whatever its de- 
fects, has at least the interest of showing that its 
writer was practically emancipated from everything 
which looks like the dominating influence of other 
authors. Now and then Meredith appears to have 
borrowed from his own earlier work, much as in 
"Sandra Belloni" he drew from "Evan Harrington" 
and "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel;" but so far 
as other novelists are concerned, the power which 



THE JOURNEYMAN 01 

they had once had over him was spent, and he 
was ready to depend wholly upon himself. True 
as this is of "Vittoria," "Rhoda Fleming," the 
novel which in date of publication separated " Sandra 
Belloni" from its sequel, gave no promise of any such 
self-deliverance. Instead, the indebtedness of Mere- 
dith to Richardson, Dickens, and George Eliot, — or 
rather the similarity of certain passages of the novel 
to parts of "Clarissa Harlowe," "David Copper- 
field," and "Adam Bede" — came nearer to laying 
its writer open to the charge of plagiarism than 
anything else which he had done. Meredith's 
acquaintance with the works of Samuel Richardson 
had led him at the close of "Evan Harrington," to 
make mention of Sir Charles Grandison by name; 
and in "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," at least 
in the unpruned exuberance of its earliest form, to 
include a humorous, scintillating chapter about a 
certain Mrs. Caroline Grandison, said to be a legiti- 
mate descendant of the famous gentleman whose 
family name she bore. 

"In her sweet youth," it seems, "the lady fell vio- 
lently in love with the great Sir Charles and married 
him in fancy. The time coming when maiden fancy 
must give way to woman fact, she compromised her 
reverent passion for the hero by declaring that she 
would never change the name he had honored her 
with, and must, if she espoused any mortal, give her 
hand to a Grandison. Accordingly, two cousins 
were proposed to her; but the moral reputation of 
these Grandisons was so dreadful, and such a dis- 
grace to the noble name they bore, that she rejected 



92 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

them with horror. Woman's mission, however, 
being her perpetual precept, she feU at the age of 
twenty-three bound to put it in practice and, as she 
was handsome and most handsomely endowed, a 
quite unobjectionable gentleman was discovered 
who, for the honor of assisting her in her mission, 
agreed to disembody himself in her great name, and 
be lost in the blaze of Sir Charles. With his con- 
currence she rapidly produced eight daughters. A 
son was denied her. Thus was the second genera- 
tion of Grandisons denied a son. Her husband, 
the quite unobjectionable gentleman, lost heart after 
the arrival of the eighth, and surrendered his mind 
to more frivolous pursuits. She also appeared to 
lose heart; it was her saintly dream to have a Charles. 
So assured she was that he was coming at last that 
she prepared male baby-linen with her own hands 
for the disappointing eighth. When in that mo- 
ment of creative suspense. Dr. Bairam's soft voice 
with sacred melancholy, pronounced *A daughter' 
madam!' Mrs. Caroline Grandison covered her 
face, and wept. She afterwards did penance for 
her want of resignation and relapsed upon religion 
and little dogs." 

These allusions to Richardson's hero might pos- 
sibly be explained as the result of chance; but it is 
far more than a mere chance, it is a strongly 
influenced state of mind to which certain parts of 
" Rhoda Fleming " are due. The pursuit of Clarissa 
Harlowe by Richard Lovelace has little in common 
perhaps with the pursuit of Dahlia Fleming by 
Edward Blancove; but the sincere repentance of 



THE JOURNEYMAN 93 

the eighteenth century libertine and his earnest wish 
that his evil work had been left undone are too nearly 
like the deep and manly contrition of the London 
banker's son and his desire to make amends so far 
as in him lay to leave any doubt in a reader's mind 
of Meredith's marked indebtedness to Richardson. 
The influence of Dickens and George Eliot, 
can hardly be so positively declared, although con- 
siderable evidence of its probability is adducible. 
The plot of "Rhoda Fleming," centring as it does 
about the deception practised by a nobleman's son 
upon a young and pretty Kentish girl visiting her 
uncle in London, is not in any essential unusual : the 
situation is one which has been treated over and 
over again, ever since the time when story-telling 
began. To hold, then, that Dahlia's elopement 
with Edward is traceable either to Emily's flight 
with Steerforth, or to Hetty's misplaced confidence in 
Arthur Donnithorn would be setting up a claim too 
easily refuted; but to allege that Robert's search for 
Dahlia owes something to Peggotty's journey to find 
Emily, and to Adam's quest for Hetty is to make 
an assertion less easily disproved. The despairing 
hope with which the man in each case sets out, the 
inquiries which are so depressingly fruitless for a 
time, the endeavors which are wholly discouraging 
for many days, and the final discovery of the crushed 
and broken-hearted victim are too much alike for 
the reader not to feel, even if he cannot prove, that 
George Eliot drew somewhat from Dickens, and 
that Meredith was not wholly uninfluenced by both 
of his older and popular contemporaries. 



94 'i^HE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

In certain minor matters, also, other similarities 
are noticeable: Rhoda's dogged persistence in re- 
fusing to believe that Dahlia could have gone 
wrong must recall Adam's long unshaken con- 
fidence in Hetty; Mrs. LovelFs remarks upon Ed- 
ward's waywardness when she finds that Dahlia is 
but a farmer's daughter, suggests Rose Dartle's cruel 
indifference when she learns that Emily is a Yar- 
mouth sailor's child; and Robert's refusal to allow 
Edward even a moment with Dahlia brings to mind 
the essential particulars of the scene between Adam 
and Arthur in the wood. Again, the effect which 
Edward's letter has upon Dahlia is not unlike that 
which Arthur's has upon Hetty; Dahlia's consent to 
marry Sedgett — a deed by which her family hopes 
to restore her to respectability — suggests Hetty's 
first contemplations of her possible marriage with 
Adam, after she has been cast off by Arthur; and 
finally, so far as matters of plot are concerned, 
Adam's marriage to Dinah Morris at least remotely 
calls to mind the union of Robert and Rhoda. 

In character-drawing, too, certain similarities may 
be pointed out. Dahlia and Rhoda as sisters make 
one think of Nancy and Priscilla Lammeter in ''Silas 
Marner," while the group gathered in the Pilot Inn 
is not unsuggestive of a far more successful piece of 
drawing, the company which sat around the fire- 
place in the kitchen of "The Rainbow." Certainly 
Meredith suffers here in comparison with George 
Eliot. The woman painted a scene which is natural, 
convincing and life-like; but the man's picture is 
without verisimilitude, for it is not too much to say 



THE JOURNEYMAN 95 

that his characters are stiff and unnatural. William 
Fleming's housekeeper, Mrs. Sumfit, and his super- 
annuated overseer, Master Gammon, are beyond all 
doubt in Dickens's style; and his brother-in-law, 
Anthony Hackbut, has been felt by many critics to 
belong in the same catagory. Nor has Nicodemus 
Sedgett escaped being placed there also, though it 
seems nearer the truth to say, that he reflects the 
manner of Charles Reade. Indeed, however strong 
a case may be made in the attempt to show that 
"Rhoda Fleming" was produced under the direct 
influence of works by Richardson, Dickens, and 
George Eliot, it may be remarked in passing that 
the whole novel has a flavor distinctly like that 
found in "Griflith Gaunt" and in "Foul Play." 
These works, however, did not appear until after the 
publication of " Rhoda Fleming," a fact which shows 
that if it is worth while to assert the existence of a 
connection between Meredith and Reade, the latter, 
rather than the former, must have been the disciple. 
But this treatment of ''Rhoda Fleming" as if it 
were little more than a mere patch-work of pieces, 
artfully chosen and skilfully fitted together, is hardly 
just either to the book or to the author. That it is 
inferior to the other works of Meredith's journey- 
man period, few readers will deny despite Steven- 
son's readiness to give it almost unstinted praise. 
Certainly, excuses are frequently made for an ap- 
parent carelessness of workmanship not easily par- 
donable in an author who expects to be taken seri- 
ously. The chief of these, namely, that Meredith, 
much to his own regret was forced to place his 



96 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

book upon the market before he could give it the 
careful revision which was his custom, appears 
with a regularity almost computable; yet the ex- 
cuse can hardly reconcile one to defects which are 
characteristic of the tyro rather than of the ex- 
perienced novelist. It would seem far better not 
to blink the fact, but to admit fairly and squarely, 
that Meredith was out of his element when he at- 
tempted to present the yeoman character. At all 
events, he certainly learned his lesson, since he never 
again saw fit to centre the plot of a novel around any 
but those whose social instincts were actually fine 
or presumably so. The field in which he could do 
his best was wide enough without the need of an 
attempt on his part to enlarge its boundaries and 
to trespass upon George Eliot's ground. 

Fortunately the result of Meredith's mistaken 
ambition was not an absolute failure. Indeed, 
whatever lack of finish the story may show, how- 
ever crude it may seem here and there, "Rhoda 
Fleming" is neither to be ignored nor to be regarded 
lightly. If the frequent allusion to their mother's 
Bible fails to surround the two sisters with the re- 
ligious atmosphere which envelops Dinah Morris 
and Adam Bede, the repentance of Edward Blancove 
is more real and convincing than Arthur Donni- 
thorne's remorse. If Robert Eccles is an inconsis- 
tent character through his appearing now a yokel, 
now a brute, now a blackguard, and now a gentle- 
man. Major Waring's unwavering refinement makes 
him always attractive, noble, and admirable. If 
Mrs. LovelFs life in India and the incident of the 



THE JOURNEYMAN 97 

blood-spotted handkerchief are so briefly touched 
upon as to leave the reader in a quandary, the careful 
study and minute delineation of Rhoda are suffi- 
ciently satisfying to awaken sympathy, although her 
convictions may not themselves gain approval. 

Nor is it too much to apply the over-worn epithet 
of "Shakespearean " to a work in which the idea of 
nemesis is so consistently worked out. Farmer Flem- 
ing visited a severe punishment upon his daughter 
Rhoda, because of her sympathy for a girl who had 
wandered from the path of virtue, and the time 
came when the disgrace of his beloved Dahlia was 
a burden almost too great for him to bear. Rhoda 
pitilessly insisted that Dahlia against her will should 
marry Sedgett, and in so doing she produced con- 
ditions which all but forced her into an unwilling 
union with Algernon Blancove. Edward abandoned 
Dahlia, when he mistakenly supposed that he had 
grown wholly tired of her, and was afterwards forced 
to learn that repentance, although it may gain 
forgiveness, cannot revive a love which cruelty 
and neglect have crushed. In other words, the 
book teaches with no uncertain tone that char- 
acter is its own punishment, its own reward, its own 
destiny. As clearly from the lips of Meredith as 
from the mouth of the Apostle issues the message 
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for what- 
soever a man soweth that shall he also reap." 

"Rhoda Fleming" and "Vittoria" were the last 
sustained works produced by Meredith in the first 
period of his career as novelist. During the next 
few years, a review or a poem signed by his name 



98 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

might be occasionally chanced upon in the maga- 
zines of the time; but on the whole, Meredith for 
some reason preferred to keep silence. Had he per- 
sisted in such preference, it may be almost safely as- 
serted that his name would not now be remembered 
or, if remembered, as that of an author of one book, 
namely, "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel." At 
best, indeed, he had done little more by 1870 than 
furnish an example in proof of Oliver Wendell 
Holmes's comment at his " Breakfast Table ": 

" Every articulately-speaking human being has in 
him stuff for one novel in three volumes duodecimo. 
. . . There is great danger that a man's first life- 
story shall clean him out, so to speak, of his best 
thoughts. Most lives, though their stream is loaded 
with sand and turbid with alluvial waste, drop a few 
golden grains of wisdom as they flow along. Often- 
times a single cradling gets them all, and after that 
the poor man's labor is only rewarded by mud and 
worn pebbles." 

To regard ** Evan Harrington " and the three novels 
succeeding it as no better than the silt washed down 
by the gold-bearing river would be to do them mani- 
fest injustice; yet it is little doubtful, that in many 
respects, each of the stories, when viewed in its en- 
tirety, is inferior to "The Ordeal of Richard Fev- 
erel." That book, far from successful as it was in 
attracting readers at the time of its appearance, now 
stands out even among the great novels of Mere- 
dith's famous contemporaries as a piece of rare 
workmanship. Still, the later books, when taken in 
contrast with the first, exhibit in matters of detail a 



THE JOURNEYMAN 99 

greater firmness of touch, a more confident breadth 
of sweep, a surer consciousness of power, indicative 
of growth in both strength and wisdom. Further- 
more, however much or Httle the influence of other 
noveHsts may be truly assumed to have dyed the 
earher textures woven in the looms of Meredith's 
thought, the last fabric which he drew out as a jour- 
neyman was beyond all question or suspicion wholly 
his own. The five years of silence which followed 
have been mistakenly regarded by some as a period 
of dissatisfaction and contempt with a world which 
would not read his books. Rather should it be 
looked upon as a time of rest preceding great 
achievement. At all events, when " The Adventures 
of Harry Richmond" appeared in 1871, a change 
had occurred in its author: the journeyman had 
become a master-workman. 



IV 

THE MASTER-WORKMAN 

THE PERIOD OF FREE INVENTION — "tHE ADVENT- 
URES OF HARRY RICHMOND" — "bEAUCHAMP's 

career" — "short stories" — "the egoist" — 
"the tragic comedians." 

The career of the artisan is largely determined 
by the continuous co-operation of two forces — 
power and ambition. Either without the other 
scarcely ever produces a resultant of any appreci- 
able value, but when the two forces are properly 
balanced, they are mutually corrective, since the 
possession of power tends to prevent idle dreaming, 
and a clearly perceived goal is an incentive to per- 
severance. Now, not all of those whose fortune it is 
to become journeymen preserve the balance of 
inner forces, which leads eventually to master- 
workmanship. Either there is a lack of true pro- 
portion between their ambition and their power, or 
their vision for some reason becoming dull, they are 
content to sit down by the highway rather than to 
follow it to the end. Others, however, press on to 
complete success. Now and then, a man reconciles 
himself in the days of his apprenticeship to the hard 
labor, the disciplinary task, and the irksome com- 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 101 

mand, because he is wise enough to see that endur- 
ance of these things is necessary to his training. In 
the succeeding years when as journeyman he is to a 
large extent his own master, but still has to listen to 
the orders of an employer, he does not fall into dis- 
couragement because of harsh and perhaps unjust 
criticism, nor does he permit himself to rest satisfied 
with his past accomplishments because they have 
called out approving or flattering commendations. 
On the contrary, too self-confident to be over de- 
pressed, and too sane to be unduly elated, he gathers 
strength from within and from without to strive 
still for the full realization of his purpose; until at 
last having reached the goal, he has the right to 
say, with that mingled humility and pride which is 
true greatness, 

"I stand on my attainment." 

The criteria of a master-workman are various. 
Some, of course, are far more important than others. 
Most striking of all perhaps is that self-trust which 
caused Horace to say, that he had builded in his 
"Odes" a monument more lasting than bronze, and 
which led Shakespeare to prophesy eternal life for 
his "Sonnets." This confidence, indeed, does not 
always express itself in words, for mere persist- 
ence in following out theories in spite of adverse 
criticism is evidence that a man considers his work 
good. Every piece of art so placed before the world, 
whether it be a painting, a symphony, or a book is a 
challenge. Its maker is really saying; "I hear your 
criticism, I admit that I do not seem to follow the ac- 



102 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

cepted canons of art; but look at my work, judge for 
yourselves, and let it stand or fall by its own worth." 
Had it not been for this fearless self-confidence, grow- 
ing out of the knowledge that art is for man and not 
man for art, the world would have been poorer by the 
lack of the best works of such painters and sculptors 
as Raphael and Angelo, of such musicians as Bee- 
thoven and Wagner, and of such poets as Words- 
worth and Tennyson and Browning. Usually, how- 
ever, if a man will but continue to force his work 
upon the world long enough, he will at last extort 
consideration, since contempt for destructive criti- 
cism has a charm which eventually attracts attention 
and wins admiration. Popularity, therefore, partic- 
ularly if it comes after a period of indifference and 
if it shows any tendency to remain permanent, may 
be regarded as a second indication that one is a 
master- workman. But a far more conclusive test of 
such attainment, for popularity indeed may appear 
at almost any time in one's career, is the publication 
of studies and commentaries by others, and the 
appearance of imitations more or less faithful. The 
former will range all the way from those which in- 
sist that there is nothing whatever of good in the 
works under discussion, to those which claim that 
an acquaintance with them is the final shibboleth 
of culture; the latter will include, as extremes, the 
exact copy which is too nearly perfect to be called a 
plagiarism, and the work which shows its maker to 
have been a student of his master's methods rather 
than of his mannerisms. 

If these four marks are admitted to be true signs 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 103 

that a man has left the days of journeyman work be- 
hind him, certainly the years of Meredith's life after 
1870 may be looked upon as his period of master- 
workmanship. His confidence that his judgment 
and his theories of novel-writing could not be seri- 
ously at fault, became more pronounced than ever; 
his popularity steadily increased; three extended 
commentaries upon his work appeared; a host of 
briefer studies presented him at varying angles of ele- 
vation; and, in addition, a number of young novel- 
ists, flattering themselves that by snatching a shred 
from Meredith here and a patch there they might 
re-enact the fable of the daw with the peacock's feath- 
ers, but escape that foolish bird's unfortunate end, 
sought to charm the ear of the reading public with 
imitations of the products of Meredith's genius. 

Certain minor facts may also be mentioned as 
furnishing further proof that Meredith had entered 
upon the culminating period of his career. In 1873 
•*The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" was translated 
into Italian; from time to time American publish- 
ers issued several of Meredith's novels; the more 
important reviews of Germany and France began to 
take account of the man and his work; and the 
London Punch saw fit to print burlesques both of 
his prose and his verse, and to present his portrait 
in caricature. Still further, two volumes of " elegant 
extracts" were prepared for those who were com- 
pelled to take their Meredith in homoeopathic 
doses; and in 1898 there appeared as a final proof 
of true greatness — a '^George Meredith Birthday 
Book!" Among contemporary authors, Thomson, 



104 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

the poet of despair, Swinburne, the poet of con- 
temptuous discontent; and Tennyson, the poet of 
faith and hope, each spoke of him in no uncer- 
tain words of praise; critics Hke Symons and Saints- 
bury and Dowden deHghted to do him honor; and 
noveUsts varied all the way in their expressions of 
approval from the extreme worship of Stevenson to 
Mrs. Humphry Ward's restrained, but true-hearted 
exclamation, "The Master of us all, George Mere- 
dith!" Finally, it is of no little importance in this 
connection to learn that a Scotch university, never 
very prodigal of such honors, conferred upon him 
the degree of LL.D.; and also that when the death 
of Tennyson in 1892 left the British Society of 
Authors without a President, no word of dissent 
marred the prompt election of Meredith as the Poet 
Laureate's fittest successor. 

But although the second half of Meredith's life 
may be looked upon as a period of realized ambi- 
tion, the work of the two-score years following 1870, 
homogeneous as it appears from some points of view, 
still permits the classification already spoken of, into 
the novels produced in the decade when his invention 
allowed itself free play, and those written during 
the ten years when his interest concentrated itself 
upon a study of problems presented by ill-sorted 
marriage. The eight novels of the whole period 
are alike in that they show their author to be 
completely emancipated from any obvious outside 
influence; but, none the less, the grouped works 
of these two decades of later composition are so 
strongly distinguished from each other in many 



THE MASTER-WORKxMAN 105 

respects, that either may be made the subject of 
separate observation. 

The third period of Meredith's literary produc- 
tion, then, may be characterized as "free" in two 
senses of the word: free, in that the writer was no 
longer hampered by the study of models; free, also, 
from the much higher and more important point of 
view that he showed himself possessed of a range 
of vision, a power of analysis, and an originality of 
style, which gave him a unique place among Eng- 
lish novelists. "The Adventures of Harry Ptich- 
mond," it may be urged in partial proof of this claim, 
is Meredith's only example of autobiographical fic- 
tion — that is, in the sense of its being written in the 
first person; "Beauchamp's Career" is his strongest 
political novel; "The Egoist" is the most striking 
study in literature of character dominated by a single 
trait; and "The Tragic Comedians," since Meredith 
himself disclaimed the charge that "Diana of the 
Crossways" was founded upon an episode in the 
life of the Honorable Mrs. Norton, is the author's 
only essay in the presentation of a plot dealing with 
persons who actually lived, and with events which 
really took place. In matter of form, Meredith, with 
even more conspicuous success than in his earlier 
work, managed to weld the theory of the comedy to 
that of the novel. And, finally, a return with increased 
power to the use of the epigrammatic style which was 
characteristic of "The Shaving of Shagpat" and of 
"The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," made him widely 
quotable for his wit, but unfortunately also laid him 
bare to the charge of being wilfully obscure. 



106 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

"The Adventures of Harry Richmond," which 
opened this third decade of Meredith's Uterary life, 
made its first appearance in the Cornhilly where, em- 
belHshed with full-page illustrations by George 
du Maurier, it ran from September, 1870, until 
November, 1871. Immediately upon its completion 
here, it was published in book form, and its popu- 
larity was so great that a second edition was called 
for within two months. For the benefit of the 
curious in such matters, it may be said that this 
novel is Meredith's longest story, for in the limited 
uniform edition of the works it consists of fifty-six 
chapters printed upon seven hundred and sixty 
demi-octavo pages. The number of characters, too, 
is remarkably large, there being one hundred and 
sixty-nine, — that is, more than appear in "The Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel" and "Sandra Belloni" 
taken together, and as many more than are found 
in "Vittoria" as there are personages in "Rhoda 
Fleming." Unimportant as these details are in them- 
selves, we are forced to regard them as giving some 
foundation to the frequently repeated charge that 
the story is a rambling one. Certainly, it is far less 
compact than any which preceded it; and the events, 
it cannot be denied, are often episodic and some- 
times digressive rather than obviously integral parts 
of a unified plot. The scene of the action, more- 
over, touches all the continents of the Eastern Hem- 
isphere; and characters appear from every important 
European district except Russia and the Scandina- 
vian peninsula. On the other hand, no such con- 
fusion arises in the mind of the reader who follows 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 107 

the vicissitudes of that magnificent charlatan, Au- 
gustus Fitz-George Frederick WilHam Richmond 
Guelph Roy, as resuRs from an attempt to thread 
the intricate maze surrounding Emiha Alessandra 
Belloni Vittoria Campa. Despite its looseness of 
construction, therefore, "The Adventures of Harry 
Richmond," as a story, is indisputably superior to 
the novel immediately preceding it; and some critics 
have even gone as far as to hold that it is an im- 
provement upon "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel." 
As in " Evan Harrington" the reputed hero is far 
less important and interesting than his sister, the 
Countess de Saldar, so in "The Adventures of Harry 
Richmond," the youth whose name appears in the 
title of the book, does not at any time make himself 
so attractive to the reader as does his father, Roy 
Richmond. The latter is a favorite from the mid- 
night hour when, with his infant son in his arms, he 
makes his way across the Hampshire heath country, 
until the night when he perishes at the burning of 
Riversley Grange, in the only imaginable manner 
really befitting the end of his strange and eventful 
career. What if he be a cheat, an impostor, 
a mountebank? His every action is on a scale so 
magnificent as to awaken not only interest, but 
sympathy. He has the generic characteristics of the 
Great Mel and of the Countess, his daughter, but his 
ambition is greater than theirs; for while the Lym- 
port tailor and his youngest child would have been 
satisfied to be written among the nobility, the spur 
pricking the sides of Roy Richmond's intent was 
nothing less than a desire to be counted of the blood- 



108 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

royal. His preposterous claims, which he himself al- 
most believed authentic, his extravagant conduct, 
which by its originality held ridicule and laughter 
very nearly in check; his astute planning, which came 
close to uniting his son with the Princess of a German 
State, go far indeed toward winning the reader to 
his side. Nevertheless, Meredith by causing Roy 
Richmond to fail again and again at the moment 
when success is almost within reach, awakens sup- 
pressed ironic laughter. Roy Richmond, therefore, 
is no mere caricature in Dickens's style, nor, what- 
ever the author of "Sentimental Tommy" has to say 
to the contrary, is he to be compared with Thack- 
eray's Barry Lyndon: rather he is the consummate 
production of that side of Meredith's genius which 
created Mrs. Berry, Tom Cogglesby, Mr. Pericles, 
and Anthony Hackbut. 

The charge is sometimes made that a man like 
Roy Richmond could not in real life be crushed by 
the discovery that the source of his mysterious in- 
come is Dorothy Beltham instead of a frightened 
government eager to buy his silence. His repent- 
ance, too, after his unexpected and overwhelming 
defeat, it is said, is hardly convincing, and is cer- 
tainly the weakest part of the story. Perhaps; still, 
even if these charges be admitted without question, 
the earlier chapters describing his life with his boy 
are well nigh perfect; so nearly perfect in fact that 
they would save any novel from oblivion. Nor does 
Roy Richmond, in spite of all his defects, ever wholly 
lose the splendor which there irradiates him. He 
must have been a wonderful father — ^yet Meredith 



THE MASTER-WORKMAx\ 109 

never makes him so wonderful as to appear impossi- 
ble. Whether he was a caravan of wild beasts or 
the interpreter of Punch and Judy, whether he 
talked to Harry of Nelson or of Pitt, he must have 
been a rare delight; — and, beyond a doubt, supreme 
joy was the lot of a child whose father could make all 
the mighty characters of Shakespeare's plays live in 
one grand fantasy! 

"The scene where Great Will killed the deer, 
dragging Falstaff all over the park after it by the 
light of Bardolph's nose, upon which they put an 
extinguisher, if they heard any of the keepers, and so 
left everybody groping about catching the wrong 
person, was the most wonderful mixture of fun and 
tears. Great Will was extremely youthful but 
everybody in the park called him " Father William "; 
and when he wanted to know which way the deer had 
gone. King Lear punned and Lady Macbeth waved 
a handkerchief for it to be steeped in the blood of 
the deer; Shy lock ordered one pound of the carcass; 
Hamlet offered him a three-legged stool; and a num- 
ber of kings and knights and ladies lit their torches 
from Bardolph's nose; and away they flew, distract- 
ing the keepers and leaving Will and his troop to 
follow the deer. That poor thing died from a differ- 
ent weapon at each recital, though always with a 
flow of blood and a successful dash of his antlers 
into Falstaff; and to hear Falstaff bellow! But it 
was mournful to hear how sorry Great Will was 
over the animal he had slain. He spoke like music. 
I found it pathetic in spite of my knowing that the 
whole scene was lighted up by Bardolph's nose. 



no THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

When I was just bursting out crying — for the deer's 
tongue was lolHng out and quick pantings were at 
his side; he had little ones at home — Great Will re- 
membered his engagement to sell Shylock a pound of 
the carcass; determined that no Jew could eat of it, 
he bethought him that Falstaff could well spare 
a pound, and he said the Jew would not see the differ- 
ence; Falstaff only got off by hard running and roaring 
out that he knew his unclean life would make him 
taste like pork, and thus let the Jew into the trick." 
The boy among whose earliest recollections was 
the memory of such a story as this, exhibits through- 
out his life a likeness to his father which is not usual 
in literature. Novelists frequently present parents 
and their children in the same book, but seldom 
would the relationship be suspected if there were not 
some assurance or some hint that it existed ; but here 
the character of Harry Richmond is so colored as 
to make the reader exclaim now and again: "That 
boy is his father's own child ! " In his development, 
it is true, he shows a certain tendency to weakness, 
which as much interferes with his being unfailingly 
attractive as it makes him different from his father. 
This, however, cannot be looked upon as a refutation 
of the similarity suggested, for no son is exactly like 
his father, but inherits only certain traits from him. 
Nor can it be held that the alleged similarity rests 
upon insufficient foundation because the younger 
man never acts in precisely the same w^ay as the older. 
Family traits are most generally seen in some turn 
of the head, some movement of the hand, or some 
use of words rather than in any extended line of 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 111 

thought or conduct; but, as is the case with Roy 
Richmond and his son, the Hkeness is not the less 
clear because it is not susceptible of direct proof. 

The desultory education which the boy received 
from his father was first supplemented by attend- 
ance at a Mr. Rippenger's school. In a very faint 
way the life there makes one think of David Cop- 
perfield's experience at Salem House, probably be- 
cause, in a very much fainter way. Temple is some- 
thing like Traddles, and Heriot like Steerforth. 
However that may be, throughout the treatment 
of Harry Richmond's childhood and youth, Mere- 
dith again struck those perfect chords which he 
sounded when he dealt with the boyhood of Richard 
Feverel, but which he badly jangled when he in- 
cluded Alec Jocelyn and Dorothy Loring in "Evan 
Harrington." His skill returned, it is true, with 
the children of Laura Piaveni in "Vittoria" and 
reached its climax perhaps with Cross] ay in "The 
Egoist." Still, the dozen chapters dealing with 
Harry's boyhood are infinitely better than all the 
innumerable stories of abnormal and precocious 
children parading up and down the pages of recent 
magazines. 

One stops, now and then, perhaps, to wonder if 
a boy could by any possibility have so many 
strange experiences as fell to Harry Richmond's 
lot; but whether he is being fondled by his father, 
or attaching himself to Julia Rippenger and to 
Heriot, or wandering with the gypsies, or suffer- 
ing abduction at the hands of Captain Welsh, 
or making his way through a German forest, he is 



112 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

one of the most natural boys in English fiction. 
Shortly after his arrival in the court of Prince Ernest, 
however, he unexpectedly develops into a youth 
capable of making most violent love. This sudden 
leap forward startles the reader somewhat; and by 
the time things are readjusted, Harry Richmond has 
ceased to be of any special interest save in so far as he 
is a tool of his father's colossal ambition. The em- 
bers of his youth, it is true, do occasionally send 
up a fitful glow or aspiring flash, but Harry Rich- 
mond unfortunately never fulfills the promise of his 
childhood. 

For a time, at least, around this young man as a 
centre there move, in addition to his father, four 
characters of no mean importance, his grandfather. 
Squire Beltham of Riversley Grange; his aunt, Dor- 
othy Beltham; and the two women who regard him 
with romantic attachment, Janet Ilchester and the 
Princess Ottilia of Eppenwelzen-Sarkeld. The Squire 
is a straight-forward sturdy character not unlike 
Jonathan Eccles in "Rhoda Fleming," though he 
is thrown into much higher relief than the Hampshire 
farmer. He least of all is befooled by Roy Ptich- 
mond; and not only in this respect, but in others as 
well, stands out as one of the few wholly sane char- 
acters in the book. He belongs, therefore, in the 
class which includes Mrs. Mel from ** Evan Harring- 
ton," Agostino Balderini from "Vittoria," and 
possibly Major Waring from **Rhoda Fleming." 
Coarse and blunt he may be, but he sees clearly and 
he speaks with sincerity. In that last scene which 
takes place at London not many days before his 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 113 

death, he rises almost to grandeur. Desirous of 
sparing his daughter as much as possible, yet dis- 
gusted with her foolish infatuation for her dead 
sister's husband; filled with righteous contempt for 
his son-in-law, but not unmindful that the man is 
Harry's father; yearning with love for his grandson, 
but embittered by the knowledge of his wilful blind- 
ness; he bursts out in a masterly invective against 
Roy Richmond, which at last compels that arch- 
charlatan to restrain his insolence, and to cower be- 
fore the storm of well-deserved abuse. Neverthe- 
less, there is that in him which makes it not impossi- 
ble that Dorothy Beltham should be his daughter. 
If he is sturdy, she is persistent; when he is nursing 
his wrath, she is cherishing her affections; when he 
stands ready to crush, she is eager merely to restrain. 
Unfortunately, she is never at any time thrown into 
very great prominence, but, none the less, she perme- 
ates the book and adds a sweetness to what without 
her would sometimes be acid or bitter, and sometimes 
flavorless or insipid. 

The two younger women, the Princess Ottilia and 
Janet Ilchester, present an interesting contrast. The 
former idealized Harry Richmond, the latter saw him 
as he was; the former was romantic, sentimental; the 
latter far-seeing, sensible; the former was governed 
by the heart, the latter by the head : yet the former 
was not unlike Sandra Belloni in many respects, and 
the latter was not without some likeness to Clare 
Forey. Each of them to some extent dissappoints the 
reader who is hardly reconciled to OttiHa's content- 
ing herself with Prince Hermann; and the strange 



114 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

aberration of mind which permitted Janet to engage 
herself to the Marquis of Edbury is almost incred- 
ible. Surely the well-balanced intellect of the Eng- 
lishwoman would have prevented her from taking 
such a step out of mere pique at Harry Richmond's 
apparent indifference; and it would equally have 
stifled in the very beginning any such quixotic whim 
as marrying a man to reform him. Her escape at 
the stroke of the hour, however, must seem some- 
thing like a straining of the novelist's art; but of 
course the eternal fitness of things demanded that 
she should be saved from the Marquis. Still, her 
later marriage to young Richmond suggests that 
she was not over-successful in steering her course 
between Scylla and Charybdis, since it is a serious 
question whether her life could be happier in losing 
a rake, only to take up with a stick. 

"The Adventures of Harry Richmond" is thought 
by some to have been inspired by Marry at's " Japhet 
in Search of a Father"; but no very careful reader of 
the two books will feel that any real connection ex- 
ists. The statement in all probability was first made 
by some hasty critic who was perhaps analogy-mad 
and therefore saw what he was most eager to see. 
As a matter of fact, two novels could hardly be more 
widely separated or be more unlike. Nor can the 
claim that Stevenson's "Prince Otto" had its sources 
in Meredith's novel be given much more credence. 
It is true that the younger novelist's book received 
almost unstinted praise from Meredith; it is likewise 
true that Stevenson worshipped the elder writer 
nearly to the verge of sentimentality, and took much 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 115 

delight in referring to him as his master. It is still 
further true, that the names Otto and Ottilia occur 
in both books, and that Doctor Gotthold in Ste- 
venson's romance is something like Julius von Kar- 
steg in Meredith's novel; but after all the only 
extended passage in "Prince Otto" which seems to 
suggest a comparison with anything in Meredith is 
that beautiful chapter descriptive of the Princess 
Seraphina's flight through the forest. That, indeed, 
has the Meredith flavor and never more than when, 
after the night of fear and sorrow, she lifted her eyes, 
and, catching sight of that hue which is never seen 
but as the herald of the morning, she cried with joy 
catching at her voice, "O! it is — it is the dawn!" 

The hunt for resemblance between authors, 
whether they live at the same time or are separated by 
long intervals of years, whether they are of the same 
nationality or belong to races having little in com- 
mon, is one of the many interesting studies which 
literature allows. The pleasure, however, is fraught 
with danger, since one often runs near to falling into 
the trap of finding a connection where none exists, 
of jumping to a conclusion as ill-founded as that of 
the man who derived "Moses" from "Methuselah," 
by omitting — ethuselah, and adding — oses. There 
can be little doubt that any attempt to connect 
Marryat and Meredith rests upon ground as unten- 
able as this philologist's. Probably, too, the sug- 
gestion that there might be some connection be- 
t^^een "The Parliamentary Novels" of TroUope 
and "Beauchamp's Career" by Meredith would be 
properly rated as hasty rather than well considered. 



116 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

But it is not too much to say that those who took 
deHght in "Phineas Phinn" and ''Phineas Ptedux," 
both preceding the pubUcation of Meredith's pohtical 
novel by only a few years, and who likewise found 
pleasure in "The Duke's Children," a book which 
followed it by three or four, must have felt that the 
atmosphere of Meredith's work was not unlike that 
of Trollope's splendid series. Further than this, 
however, the comparison cannot be carried, for 
Phineas Phinn has little in common with Nevil 
Beauchamp, and Glencora Palisser reminds one not 
at all of Ptenee de Croisnel or of Cecilia Halkett. 

Of greater interest and of more importance than 
this faintly possible connection with Marryat and 
Trollope is the fact that "Beauchamp's Career," 
flanked on either hand by six remarkable pieces of 
fiction, shows itself almost inextricably bound to 
both groups. That is, the novel seems to have 
been the product of much that went before as it 
was the anticipation of not a little that followed. In 
the first place, politics had been introduced as a 
minor element in ''The Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond," the book immediately preceding it, and the 
criticism directed by Dr. Shrapnel against those who 
accented the Ego was a foretaste of ''The Egoist." 
Again, Meredith here kept up his attacks upon sen- 
timentalism whenever it appeared, whether as ideal- 
ism or as insincerity; and, furthermore, strongly 
hinted at the inadequacy of commonly accepted ideas 
of marriage. Thus there can be found in the book 
the informing ideas which permit the threefold 
grouping of Meredith's novels into those making vrar 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 117 

upon sentimentalism, those ridiculing egotism, and 
those proving the insufficiency of the conventional 
attitude towards the marriage question. 

Even more striking still is the strong family relation- 
ship which the characters of "Beauchamp's Career" 
bear to those of Meredith's earlier novels. Rosamond 
Culling, both because of her position in Everard 
Romfrey's house and because of her regard for Nevil 
Beauchamp, is near to being a reproduction of the 
Lady Blandish who suffered from the tongue of gossip 
and cared for Richard Feverel with a mother's love. 
Mr. Romfrey himself is, of course, not at all like the 
lord of Raynham Abbey, but he must suggest in more 
ways than one Squire Beltham of Riversley Grange. 
Great-aunt Beauchamp, a sort of half-hidden force 
in the background, recalls those elderly women, 
Mrs. Grantley in Meredith's first novel and Mrs. 
Bonner in his second. Seymore Austin has far more 
in common with Austin Wentworth than the mere 
accident of name; and the attitude of Beauchamp 
towards the former permits comparison with that 
of Richard towards his older cousin. Dr. Shrapnel, 
too, is Professor Von Karsteg written large; and 
Renee de Croisnel is almost undoubtedly a replica 
of Ottilia of Eppenwelzen, as Cecilia Halkett is of 
Janet Ilchester; but it must be immediately added, 
on one hand, that the French woman is less attrac- 
tive than the German princess, and, on the other, 
that the Colonel's daughter is much superior to Squire 
Beltham's distant relative. Great as is the contrast 
between the appearances of Renee and of Ottilia in 
England, and between the attitudes which their re- 



118 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

spective lovers take towards them, the two events 
and the attendant circumstances have sufficient in 
common to show that they must have sprung from 
the same creative mind. At this point therefore, 
Nevil Beauchamp and Harry Richmond become at 
least tangent to each other; and the later engage- 
ment of Janet Hchester to Lord Edbury may almost 
permit itself to be called an intersection with the 
marriage of Cecilia Halkett to Blackburn Tuckham. 
Yet '^ Beauchamp's Career," as might be hastily 
concluded, is no mere presentation of old puppets in 
new relationships. Nevil Beauchamp and Cecilia 
Halkett, at least, stand out in bold relief; and can 
hardly be looked upon as inferior to the greatest of 
Meredith's creations. Certainly with the possible ex- 
ception of Carlo Ammiani in " Vittoria," Beauchamp 
is the most interesting study in male portraiture be- 
tween Richard Feverel and Willoughby Patterne. 
It is true that he wavered between two loves, as 
did Wilfred Pole and Harry Richmond, and thus 
betrayed a weakness which Meredith expects his 
readers to condemn, but he possessed much greater 
force of character than either of these men, and a 
more attractive personality than either Evan Harring- 
ton or Edward Blancove. Chivalrous, impulsive, 
ready to draw upon the slightest provocation, he 
often carried those who did not sympathize with his 
political ideas to ground whither they least wanted 
to go. Over-mastered by his heart when he first 
knew Renee de Croisnel, he was disappointed to 
find her less influenced by passion than by fear, al- 
though later, when reason had asserted itself, he 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 119 

was able so to act that the lady was saved from herself. 
On the other hand, swayed by his intellect, he would 
not listen to the promptings of his feelings at a time 
when he might have won Cecilia Halkett; and yet he 
could find little but blame for her, when he learned 
that, stiffling her affection for him, she had consented 
to a union with the prosaic Blackburn Tuckham. 
It is doubtful if he ever saw that the real trouble lay 
in his own vacillation of character, in his inability 
to balance heart and mind with that nice adjustment 
which means perfection of soul. Poetically consid- 
ered, he should have been united in the end with 
Cecilia Halkett; but his loveless marriage of gratitude 
with Jenny Denham was just what he deserved and 
just what he would have reached, had he been a 
character in real life. Still, whether one is able to 
approve wholly of Beauchamp's extreme Radical 
idea in politics, or believes that they rose out of a 
vitiating fallacy; whether one is patient or overtried 
with him as he struggles for firm footing between 
passion and reason, one finds that he is a close rival 
for that sympathy and affection which nearly every 
reader has for Richard Feverel. 

Cecilia Halkett, whom Beauchamp should have 
married, as compared with Renee de Croisnel, whom 
he would have married, and with Jenny Denham, 
whom he did marry, is one of the most attractive 
portraits in Meredith's gallery of women. From 
the moment she is first seen until she passes into 
memory, it is evident that she was possessed of that 
strong, beautiful, and noble womanhood to which 
Sandra Belloni attained after years of chastening 



120 THK NOVELS OF GEORGE I\IEREDITH 

disappointment. She loved Nevil Beauchamp, but 
her affection did not bUnd her to his fundamental 
weakness. Even such limitations as her education 
imposed upon her thought did not greatly lessen that 
all-inclusive quality of mind for which grandeur is 
hardly too strong a term. The silence with which 
she endured the assumption of her father and of 
Everard Romfrey, that women are incapable of deep 
thought or of clear insight, is evidence that she pos- 
sessed the very powers which those men denied to her 
sex. Indeed, her attitude went far towards putting 
them in the wrong; for her strength of character in 
abstaining from self-defence, threw the burden of 
proof upon them; and it became evident that they 
were sentimentalists, blindly accepting traditional 
ideas about woman's place in the world. It is a 
trifle hard, perhaps, to reconcile this side of Cecilia 
Halkett's character with that which permitted her to 
receive Blackburn Tuckham's proposal at a time 
when she must have been confident that Nevil Beau- 
champ was on his way to make offer of his hand. But 
Meredith seldom presents his readers with ideal con- 
ditions, that is with conditions which are ideal from 
the sentimental point of view. He is a realist in the 
sternest sense of the term; and his problem is the 
presentation of man and woman in the making, of 
man and woman struggling, albeit with many re- 
verses, towards that perfection of soul which Mere- 
dith himself believes is the purpose and secret of this 
world's existence. 

In his discussion of this problem Meredith feels 
it pertinent to give time to the study of the una- 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 121 

wakened as well as to the wakened, to those who are 
content to remain in bondage as well as to those who 
have heard the call to freedom. This, then, is the 
reason for Renee de Croisnel's existence. She is 
very beautiful; she is attractive to everyone of those 
impulses of passion which have caused the heart of 
man to hold his intellect in subjection; she is, it 
might almost be said, an embodiment of the tempta- 
tion which the monks of the middle ages saw in every 
woman — the temptation which sought to* bind the 
soul to earth and to stifle •every aspiration to spiritu- 
ality. The asceticism of the old churchmen would 
undoubtedly have been termed a sentimentalism by 
Meredith, but he could not have -denied that in their 
crude way, they were endeavoring to give voice to a 
criticism of their age which he constantly preached 
against his own. It sounded loudly in "The Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel"; it was not absent, although 
breathed more gently, in "Evan Harrington," and 
in the two novels dealing with Sandra Belloniis 
career; it rose to shrillness in "Rhoda Fleming''; 
and with changed qualities of tone it persisted in 
those pages which dealt with the Princess Ottilia 
and Renee de Croisnel. The conclusion, however, 
is not to be drawn that Meredith looked upon the 
presence of passion in men and women as working 
a necessary degradation of character. If that had 
been his attitude, he would himself have deserved 
the shafts of ridicule which he was directing against 
the world as painted in the characters and the inci- 
dents of his novels. His hope was to make mankind 
see that passion must be subdued to intellect before 



122 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

there can be any great growth of soul; and that, as 
a necessary corollary, woman will remain the tempt- 
ress, just so long as men act upon the tacit under- 
standing that she exists as the coy but willing vic- 
tim of his pleasure. The long continued and wide 
extended acceptance of this interpretation of the 
use of women, has produced, according to Mere- 
dith, a false balance in society, and he felt that it 
was his mission to point out that the resulting evil 
is working its own punishment. Women who ac- 
cept the conditions either actively or passively, 
either knowingly or blindly, he thought, must be 
brought to see that they themselves perpetuate the 
degradation from which they suffer most; and men 
who persist in believing that women have not grown 
beyond what they were in the childhood of the race 
retard thereby not only their own advancement, 
but the progress of the world as well. So must we 
go on, said Meredith in *'The Sage Enamoured and 
the Honest Lady," 

"Until those twain, who spring the root and are 
The knowledge in division, plight a troth 
Of equal hands; nor longer circulate 
A pious token for their current coin 
To growl at the exchange; they, mate and mate, 
Fair feminine and masculine shall join 
Upon an upper plain, still common mould, 
Where stamped religion, and reflective pace 
A statelier measure, and the hoop of gold 
Rounds to horizon for the soul's embrace. 
Then shall these noblest of the earth and sun 
Inmix unlike to waves on savage sea. 
But not till Nature's laws and man's are one, 
Can marriage of the man and woman be." 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 123 

Insistent as Meredith is in all of his novels 
upon the subject of woman's rightful place in life, 
the dominant tone in ** Beauchamp's Career" was 
not woman, but politics. This, perhaps, is the reason 
why the novel is frequently spoken of as being un- 
successful. Outside of England, the average novel 
reader is too little concerned with the difference 
between the political parties of that country to be 
interested in a story which makes a discussion of them 
an important point; and in England itself it is very 
probable, as in other lands, that the rank and file of 
citizens are Liberals or Conservatives as much from 
absence of thought as from its presence. It might be 
expected, then, that the book would prove little pop- 
ular, that even the conscientious reader should be 
advised to practise here and there the useful art of 
skipping, and that Dr. Shrapnel should be designated 
as "an unmitigated old bore." None the less, the 
thoughtful reader must find interest in the fact that 
"Beauchamp's Career" presented a new phase of 
Meredith's art, and that it gave insight into the mind of 
an author whose personality is not more easily discov- 
erable in his works than was Browning's in his poems. 

It is of some interest, then, to know that Mere- 
dith is an extreme Liberal in politics and is wholly 
out of sympathy with the existence of an aristo- 
cratic class and of an established church. He even 
goes so far as to speak in approval of women being 
granted the right of suffrage, thus taking ground in 
advance of many of his own party. His word on 
the matter might, of course, have been anticipated 
by any analytic reader of the novels, but his letter 



124 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

to The Times not so very long ago created some 
flurry. It was called out by what Meredith himself 
had to admit, was the result of mistaken zeal on the 
part of certain women who attempted to obtain by 
an irregularity what they could not get by due proc- 
ess of lav/. True to the methods which he fol- 
lowed in all his novels he approved where he could, 
but he did not hesitate to disapprove where necessity 
seemed to require. In part he wrote: 

'' The choicer spirits of men do now see that women 
have brains, and can be helpful to the hitherto en- 
tirely dominant muscular creature who allowed 
them some degree of influence in return for servile 
flatteries and the graceful undulations of the snake 
— admired, yet dreaded. Women must have brains 
to have emerged from so long a bondage. In the 
present instance, it is the very excellence of their case 
that inflames them. The mistake of the women has 
been to suppose that John Bull will move sensibly 
for a solitary kick. It makes him the more stubborn, 
and such a form of remonstance with him alienates 
the decorous among the sisterhood, otherwise not 
adverse to an emancipation of their sex. It cannot 
be repeated, if the agitating women are to have the 
backing of their sober sisters. Yet it is only by repe- 
tition of this manner of enlivening him that John 
Bull (a still unburied old gentlemen, though not 
much alive) can be persuaded to move at all. There- 
fore, we see clearly that the course taken by the suf- 
fragists was wrong in tactics. It may be argued 
likewise that the punishment inflicted on them has 
magnified the incident foolishly." 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 125 

Meredith's later radicalism in politics and his 
earlier sympathy with the Liberal party have more 
than once been the cause of some carping on the 
part of those who cannot reconcile his holding such 
political ideas with his having served as an editor 
about 1860 upon The Ipswich Journal and The 
Morning Post. Both of these papers, it is true, 
were organs of the Tory party, but there was noth- 
ing occurring at that time in political England which 
could lay Meredith open to the charge of insincer- 
ity in writing leaders for the periodicals mentioned. 
It is said, however, that he found the work irksome, 
although he did sometimes take up the cudgels 
against members of his own party when he thought 
that their enthusiasm carried them too far. It was 
in this spirit that he wrote: 

"With Mr. Cobden to interpret the laws to us, 
Mr. Bright to regulate their application, and Mr. 
Pease to control our passions, we are likely to do 
well. Were England subjected to the rule of the 
triumvirate, our difficulties with foreign nations 
would be short. Mr. Cobden would declare them 
to be in the right, Mr. Bright would proclaim us 
to be in the wrong, and then the final adjuration of 
Mr. Pease to lead us to adopt brotherly love as our 
emblem would come in with singular sweetness and 
unction." 

This passage is unmistakably in Meredith's own 
style, as are many others now buried in old files of 
the papers to which they were contributed. Their 
author practised no economy in his flow of trenchant 
humor and biting satire when he thought occasion 



126 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

called for a display of wit. A further extract, al- 
though having no great bearing politically, may be 
given to show how Meredith dealt with other mat- 
ters of public interest. It was currently reported, it 
seems, that Lord Palmerston, the Liberal Prime 
Minister, was to be called into court by an indig- 
nant husband. The situation was too ludicrous for 
Meredith's gravity, and he felt compelled to give 
way to the inspiration of the Comic Muse. After a 
long article on the matter he summed up his ideas in 
these words: 

**But rumor is a wicked old woman. Cannot 
something be done to stop her tongue? Surely 
one who is an octogenarian might be spared. We 
are a moral people, and it does not become us to 
have our Premier, agile though he be, bandied 
about derisively like a feathered shuttlecock on the 
reckless battlefield of scandal. For ourselves, hear- 
ing much, we have nevertheless been discreetly re- 
served, but now the veil is drawn by a portion of the 
Press, and not so delicately but that the world is 
taught pretty plainly things concerning the Eternal 
Youth in office, and the fatal consequences of his 
toasts to the ladies which may make some of them 
blush. We are indeed warned that nothing less 
than an injured husband has threatened and does 
really intend to lay an axe to the root of our Pre- 
mier's extraordinary successes in a certain awful 
court. We trust that rumor again lies; but that she 
is allowed to speak at all, and that men believe her 
and largely propagate her breathings, is a terrible 
comment on the sublime art of toasting the ladies 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 127 

as prosecuted by aged juveniles in office. It is a 
retribution worthy of a Greek tragedy. We are de- 
termined to believe nothing before it is proved. It is 
better to belong to the laughed-at minority who decline 
to admit that the virtue has gone out of our Premier 
than to confirm a shameful scandal, the flourishing 
existence of which is sufficient for our moral." 

From this arraignment of a gray-haired Peer 
whom rumor looked upon as little better than a 
reprobate, it may be well to turn aside for a moment 
to Meredith's sonnet upon the death of a statesman 
who went down to his grave clothed with dignity 
and honor. 

HAWARDEN 

When comes the lighted day for men to read 
Life's meaning with the work before their hands 
Till this good gift of breath from debt is freed, 
Earth will not hear her children's wailful bands 
Deplore the chieftain fall'n in sob and dirge; 
Nor they look where is darkness, but on high. 
The sun that dropped down our horizon's verge. 
Illumes his labor through the travelled sky, 
Now seen in sum, most glorious; and 'tis known 
By what our warrior wrought we hold him fast. 
A splendid image built of man has flown; 
His deeds inspired of God outstep a Past. 
Ours the great privilege to have had one 
Among us who celestial tasks has done. 

But interest in Meredith's own political ideas and 
in his characterizations of Prime Ministers must not 
tempt us to stray too far from the field of his novels. 
"Beauchamp's Career," it should be said in passing, 
showed in its style a marked increase in those earlier 



128 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

tendencies of its author on one hand to pile figure 
upon figure and on the other to force some simile or 
metaphor to curvet and caper until the reader grew 
dizzy. This lack of self-restraint on INIeredith's 
part undoubtedly contributed to prevent the book 
from gaining any marked popularity; and possibly 
his whimsical statement in an early chapter, that the 
reader need not look for any plot in the story, was 
not without similar influence. Just what Meredith 
meant by such a warning is not very clear, for cer- 
tainly the novel has far greater unity than had its 
immediate predecessor, and it is hardly less rich 
in variety of incident than "Evan Harrington" or 
even "Vittoria." Perhaps Meredith intended to 
imply nothing more than that he was incapable 
of weaving plots of such complexity as made the 
fame of Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade. If 
this is the conclusion to be drawn, he certainly had 
the courage of his convictions, for in his next book, 
**The Egoist," he showed that interest may be awak- 
ened and enthusiasm carried to the highest pitch 
by an extended work of fiction which is as bare as a 
rock of even the suspicion of a plot. All that Mere- 
dith undertook to do in the seven hundred pages of 
what has come to be regarded as his greatest work 
was to show how a young woman broke an unwel- 
come engagement. Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" 
may unquestionably be termed a romance without 
a heroine, Thackeray certainly called "Vanity Fair" 
a novel without a hero; but here was a work of fic- 
tion undoubtedly unique in the history of literature, 
— a story without a plot! 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 129 

In the four years which intervened between the 
appearance of the final chapters of " Beauchamp's 
Career" in The Fortnightly Review y for December, 
1875, and the publication in 1879 of "The Egoist" 
in book form without the medium of a periodical, 
Meredith found time to make three experiments 
in short-story writing, and to read a lecture be- 
fore The London Institution. These four pieces 
of work, "The House on the Beach," the address on 
" The Idea of Comedy and of the Uses of the Comic 
Spirit," "The Case of General Ople and Lady 
Camper," and "The Tale of Chloe," all appeared 
in The New Quarterly Magazine^ the first three in 
the numbers for January, April, and July, 1877, 
respectively, and the last in the issue for July, 1879. 
As the stories were not published in book form until 
fifteen years had passed, and the lecture not until 
score had gone by, Mr. J. M. Barrie, writing in Th6 
Scofs Observer for November 24, 1888, rather aptly 
termed them "The Lost Works of George Meredith." 
But Mr. G. S. Street was even more fortunate when 
in The Yelloiv Book for April, 1895, he hit upon the 
expression, "Mr. Meredith in Little," as a title for 
liis review of the collected stories. Mr. Street's 
theme was announced in these words: 

"In *The House on the Beach,' you have Mr. 
Meredith, as it were, in his bones. In *The Case 
of General Ople and Lady Camper' you have him 
alive and imperfect. In 'The Tale of Chloe' you 
have him consummate." 

One may be permitted, perhaps, to dissent from 
the characterization of the second story, but we 



130 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

cannot help feeling that Mr. Street was sure of his 
ground and trustworthy in his conclusions. 

"The House on the Beach" was certainly a piece 
of work in Meredith's early manner. Martin Tin- 
man and his sister, Mrs. Cavely, might easily have 
been mistaken for characters drawn by Dickens; 
Annette Smith was of the type portrayed by Thack- 
eray in Amelia Sedley; and Mrs. Crickledon in some 
respects was George Eliot's Dolly Winthrop trans- 
ported from the village of Raveloe to the Cinque 
Port of Crikswich. Various phases of sentimentality, 
moreover, were attacked; and the heroine was all 
but allowed to become the victim of her mistaken 
devotion to a conventionality. Still, despite this re- 
turn to earlier methods and ideas, the story by no 
means shows that Meredith's hand had lost its cun- 
ning, or that his power of invention had waned. 
Van Diemen Smith was made too pathetic, through 
being wounded in the house of his friend, to be the 
subject of anything but sympathetic laughter, even 
when his fears led him to picture himself in a lu- 
dicrous position. Still greater skill was shown in 
the manipulation of circumstances by which Tin- 
man's deep and successful scheme to silence Little 
Jane's craving for an increase of wages received its 
reward in making her become the instrument which 
laid bare his far deeper and much meaner plan to 
flay once more the feelings of his friend. Finally, 
the description of the storm demands mention at 
least, since, in spite of the strictest economy of 
words, Meredith makes his readers feel the fury of 
the wind and the destruction of the flood. 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 131 

"The House on the Beach," humorous on the 
whole, possessed certain sombre elements and 
showed an interesting exhibition of nemesis; but 
" The Case of General Ople and Lady Camper " was 
a skit in Meredith's very lightest manner. Its char- 
acters moved in the world of which Meredith wrote 
with most ease; and Elizabeth Ople, faintly as she 
was drawn, was obviously related to Janet Ilchester 
and Cecilia Halkett, while Lady Camper was al- 
most a forestudy of Mrs. Mountstuart Jenkinson in 
"The Egoist." It is not without interest also to 
know that the title of Meredith's tenth novel, " One 
of Our Conquerors," was anticipated in the first 
chapter of this story, and actually mentioned in the 
last. Mr. Street will have it that by bringing about 
the marriage of Lady Camper to General Ople, 
Meredith spoiled a brilliant and delicious farce. It 
is true that the suddenness with which the engage- 
ment was precipitated produces a feeling of shock 
in the reader's mind; but surely the mental tort- 
ure endured by the General while he was being 
pruned of his sentimentalism and egoism rendered 
him not undeserving of the reward which he at last 
obtained. The reader's imagination, moreover, 
clearly perceives that the married life of the General 
and his wife must have been of a piece with their 
strange courtship, for Meredith pointed out that 
the man was not tuned, but only tunable, and likely, 
therefore, to be a permanent fund of amusement 
for the Lady's humor. No doubt there were other 
things of which the retired officer had to be broken 
besides his tendency to talk of residences that were 



132 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

"gentlemanly" and sights that were "sweetly 
pretty;" but it is to be hoped that a reduction to 
coUarless imbecility was seldom necessary to bring 
him into proper subjection. 

If the story of the General and the Lady through 
its inclusion of a striking phrase has any right to 
be considered a preliminary sketch or forestudy 
for "One of Our Conquerors," certainly "The 
Tale of Chloe" may be looked upon as a pen- 
dant to "The Adventures of Harry Richmond." 
It will perhaps be remembered that when the hero 
of the last-named novel was a small boy, his father 
taught him to speak with precocious supercilious- 
ness of the dairymaid who became the Duchess of 
Dewlap. An episode in the life of this same young 
woman soon after her name became enrolled in the 
Peerage, formed the subject matter of the third and 
most important of Meredith's short stories. The 
chief interest of the reader, however, must centre 
not so much about the young Duchess as about 
Chloe, "that most admirable woman whose heart 
was broken by a faithless man ere she devoted her 
wreck of life to arrest one weaker than herself on the 
descent to perdition." The story, as told, was a 
cameo rather than a piece of sculpture, a miniature 
rather than a painting; but it showed none the less 
the touch of a master's hand. The atmosphere was 
that of the age of the minuet, of powder and lace. 
Yet to the attractive melancholy with which authors 
always invest scenes of that period, Meredith added 
an element which took the story wholly out of the 
realm of comedy. Chloe, who tied a knot in a silken 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 133 

cord at each fresh instance of her lover's unfaithful- 
ness, and who at last put the tangled strands to a 
strange and terrible use, was hardly less perfectly 
portrayed than the heroine of a Greek drama. The 
critic, therefore, did not greatly err when he called 
her one of the noblest figures in tragic story, and held 
that he who told the tale of her last unhappy days, 
spoke with consummate art and perfect skill. 

If such words of praise seem a trifle extravagant 
to have been called forth by a form of literature in 
which Meredith never did more than perform a few 
experiments, they certainly cannot be looked upon 
by any fair-minded reader as being excessive, when 
applied to the long novel which appeared in the same 
year with " The Tale of Chloe." Nevertheless, " The 
Egoist" is not acceptable to every reader. If it 
has been made an object of idolatrous worship by 
Stevenson, it has been torn to shreds and tatters by 
William Watson. If the former spoke of it almost 
as if he felt himself treading upon holy ground, the 
latter in offering his words of censure recalled the 
fable of the bull in the China shop. The creator 
of "the dainty rogue in porcelain" might have 
trembled at first for the safety of his wares, but upon 
reassuring himself that they were above his bovine 
visitor's huge antics, he no doubt settled down to 
quiet laughter. 

"No milder word than detestable," said Mr. Wat- 
son in his article, "no milder word than detestable 
can be applied to the preposterous style — and vile 
as it is, it is surpassed by the, what shall one call it ? 
Intellectual coxcombry seems a blunt phrase but is 



134 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

any courteous phrase available that will adequately 
describe the airs of superiority, the affectations of 
originality, the sham profundities, the counterfeit 
subtleties, the pseudo-oracularisms of this book? — 
Without constructive ability, without power to con- 
ceive and fashion forth realizable human creatures, 
wi hout aptitude for natural evolution of incident, 
without the instinct for knowing what will keep com- 
pany awake — Mr. Meredith can do anything better 
than he can tell a story." 

The citadel against which Mr. Watson hurled this 
diatribe showed no sign of yielding, probably be- 
cause "The Egoist" is something entirely different 
from what the critic supposed it to be. It is not a 
story in the ordinary sense, it is a study in character; 
its author used the methods not of the novelist, but 
of the dramatist; he treated language as if it were 
in a plastic rather than in a fixed state, that is, he 
discarded the rules of the prose writer and availed 
himself of the privileges of the poet; and finally he 
did not aim so much to amuse as to instruct, for the 
purpose of the book is to make the reader turn his 
criticising eye inward upon himself, rather than out- 
ward upon his fellowman. 

The story is vouched for by Stevenson, that a 
sensitive youth went to Meredith with the com- 
plaint that he had been held up to ridicule in the 
person of Sir Willoughby Patterne. "You are 
mistaken," said the great novelist in reply, "the 
Egoist is not you, he is all of us." This fact, that 
Meredith's readers are almost always driven to self- 
analysis is perhaps the chief cause of his being called 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 135 

a pessimist and a cynic. To see our neighbors under 
the lash contributes mightily to our amusement no 
doubt, and goes far to awakening a spirit of thank- 
fulness that we are not as others are; but our 
laughter grows hollow and our satisfaction ceases, 
when we feel the flick of the whip upon our own 
shoulders. Yet it is to a full realization of the value 
of looking upon oneself in a humorous or even a 
ludicrous light, that Meredith would bring every 
man. In that, he believes, rests the hope for 
the future, whether of the person or of the race; 
for if a man can look upon himself and his deeds 
with healthy laughter, there is little danger of his 
becoming sour or morbid; and whatever his failure, 
he will be able to learn from his mistakes and to 
determine with renewed strength not to bequeath 
to posterity a tumbled house. 

The chief men and women of *'The Egoist," where 
this lesson is taught with the greatest insistence, for- 
bid anything like a summarizing characterization. 
The book must be taken in its entirety, or be left 
alone. Sir Willoughby, Clara Middleton, Lsetitia 
Dale, and perhaps even Vernon Whitford, Mrs. 
Jenkinson, and Crossjay Patterne mean almost 
nothing when reduced to lower terms than those in 
which Meredith himself presents them. They must 
be seen, now by themselves giving out such native 
lustre as they possess, and now in company with one 
another that the interplay of their brilliance may 
call out flashes which would otherwise not even be 
guessed at. In other words, they are human beings 
with all the unexpected inconsistencies which one 



136 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

often sees in real life, but which one is always sur- 
prised to find in novels. It is futile to ask whether 
Clara Middleton possessed sufficient strength of 
character to break her engagement, had circum- 
stances not assisted her; it is useless to inquire if a 
man would conduct himself as Sir Willoughby did in 
his eager desire to escape a second jilting; it is time 
thrown away to wonder whether Lsetitia could really 
have brought herself to accept her quondam lover 
when she saw him shorn of the glamour with which 
she had invested him. These are questions which 
can have no answer, for the ways of Meredith's 
characters are not less inscrutable than the conduct of 
men and women in life. The reason, therefore, why 
**The Egoist" gives us pause is, not that it is unreal, 
but that it is too real. It is a scourging, a flagella- 
tion, a cutting to the quick. Meredith may be pleased 
to call it "A Comedy in Narrative," and the reader 
may be led thereby to expect opportunity for abund- 
ant laughter. He will not be disappointed, it is 
true; but if he reads between the lines, if he hears the 
message of the author, his amusement will be grim 
rather than hilarious, thoughtful rather than ex- 
plosive. 

Wonderful as "The Egoist" is, however, unique as 
most critics concede it to be, it unmistakably belongs 
to the genus which includes Meredith's other novels. 
" The Book of the Egoist," that remarkable collec- 
tion of aphoristic comments upon life and conduct 
from which frequent quotation is made, is put to 
the same use in this work as was "The Pilgrim's 
Scrip" in "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" and the 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 137 

sayings of the Philosopher in "Sandra Belloni." 
Mrs. Mountstuart Jenkinson has all the penetrative 
power of Lady Camper, and by a single phrase hits 
off a character as successfully as by a few strokes of 
her pencil the Lady pilloried the conduct of her 
middle-aged lover. Dr. Middleton is not less obtuse 
than General Ople, and in the wilful blindness of 
his selfishness fully as odious. He is as politely def- 
erential to his daughter, as was Colonel Halkett to 
his, and when there is a clash of opinions, strives to 
be as patient; but he has, like the Colonel, the con- 
ventional belief that women are to be guided or even 
commanded if need be, since their intellectual quali- 
ties are at best but rudimentary. Vernon Whitford 
belongs in the group of which Professor von Karsteg, 
Dr. Shrapnel, and Nevil Beauchamp are likewise 
members, as also at times are Austin Wentworth 
and Seymour Austin. Clara Middleton, of course, 
is the third and greatest in the trio which, besides 
herself, is made up of Janet Ilchester and Cecilia 
Halkett; but she has qualities which remind the 
reader more than once of Sandra Belloni at her best. 
Indeed, Clara Middleton seems to be the perfect 
flower of Meredith's earlier studies in womanhood, 
as almost beyond a doubt she is the ideal to which his 
later creations were never more than approximations. 
Appearing in 1879, "The Egoist" stood in point 
of publication midway between George Eliot's 
"Daniel Deronda," which preceded it by three 
years, and Henry James's " The Portrait of a Lady," 
which followed it by two. These data are hardly 
important in themselves, but the fact that Gwendolen 



138 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Harleth, the heroine of the former novel, and Gilbert 
Osmond, the heroine's husband in the latter, are 
both pronounced egoists, affords some opportunity 
for comment. The presence of Mr. Middleton, a 
curate, in "Daniel Deronda" and of the Rev. Dr. 
Middleton in "The Egoist" is of course no more 
than an accident; but Gwendolen's posing as Saint 
Cecilia at the organ and taking satisfaction in the 
admiration of her mother and the housekeeper, 
brings up the scene in which Sir Willoughby, when 
a child, mounted a chair and cried out to his ador- 
ing aunts, "I am the sun of the house!" For a 
long period of years, neither the man nor the woman 
had had their power or their general superiority dis- 
puted, with the result that the man before whom 
Isabel and Elinor Patterne bowed down in worship, 
and the woman toward whom her mother was always 
in an apologetic state of mind, had each developed 
a strong determination to have what was pleasant 
with an absolute fearlessness in making themselves 
disagreeable or dangerous when they did not get it. 
Added to this, they both had " that spontaneous sense 
of capability, some happy persons are born with, 
so that any subject they turn attention to, impresses 
them with their own power of forming a correct 
judgment on it." Still, despite this interesting 
parallel which might be carried even further, it 
would be rash to assert any actual connection be- 
tween Meredith's novel and George Eliot's. Noth- 
ing further can be proved than that both authors, 
at about the same time, felt impelled to make studies 
of characters dominated by supreme selfishness. 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 139 

Nor can a much stronger case be made out by any 
who may profess to beheve that Henry James was 
indebted to Meredith. The styles of the two authors 
have much in common, even to the frequent use of 
witty epigrams or sharp aphorisms. Gilbert Os- 
mond, too, is enough different from Sir Willoughby 
to be startlingly like him. A dilletante, Osmond de- 
lighted to dabble in poetry and painting; a pseudo- 
scientist, Sir Willoughby spent much time in his lab- 
oratory: to their acquaintances the former always 
appeared to believe that he had descended from the 
gods, the latter seemed always to be breathing fumes 
from votive censers. Sir Willoughby hoped to find in 
Clara an echo, a mirror; Osmond asked himself in 
contemplating Isabel Archer, ''What could be a 
happier gift in a companion than a quick, fanciful 
mind, which saved one repetitions, and reflected one's 
thoughts upon a scintillating surface?" Each flat- 
tered himself that he would have the forming of his 
wife's mind which was to be attached to his own "like 
a small garden-plot to a deer-park. Osmond saw 
himself raking the soil gently and watering the flow- 
ers, weeding the beds and gathering an occasional 
nosegay;" Sir Willoughby, of course, would not per- 
mit himself the use of such fanciful terms, for he felt 
that he had risen above the plane of poets; but he 
pictured a scene in which he so guided, so watched 
over, so instructed his wife, that she became his 
second-self. Luckily for Clara Middleton she es- 
caped being sacrificed upon the altar of egoism, but 
Isabel Archer suft'ered the darker fate. In portray- 
ing her married life, Mr. James, probably all uncon* 



140 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

sciously to himself, gave a sort of sequel to "The 
Egoist," or rather what would have been a sequel, 
had Meredith brought his novel to a close with the 
union of Sir Willoughby to "the dainty rogue in 
porcelain " instead of to the lady with " a romantic 
tale on her eyelashes." What Clara Middleton 
would have become, had circumstances not permitted 
her release from an egoist, that Isabel Archer be- 
came. Looking upon his cousin in after years 
Ralph Touchett saw that she had completely 
changed. 

"Her light step drew a mass of drapery behind 
it; her intelligent head sustained a majesty of orna- 
ment. The free, keen girl had become quite an- 
other person ; what he saw was the fine lady who was 
supposed to represent something. *What did Isa- 
bel represent?' Ralph asked himself; and he 
could answer only by saying that she represented 
Gilbert Osmond. * Good heavens, what a function! ' 
he exclaimed. He was lost in wonder at the mys- 
tery of things." 

Much more closely related to "The Egoist" than 
either "Daniel Deronda" or "The Portrait of a 
Lady " was Meredith's own work called " The Tragic 
Comedians." Sigismund Alvan, the hero of that 
book, was a study in egoism, even more pronounced, 
indeed, if less subtle than Sir Willoughby. Like the 
English baronet, the Hungarian socialist took pos- 
session of a young woman's heart before her reason 
had asserted itself; and though Clotilde von Rlidiger 
was far inferior in every way to Clara Middleton, 
Alvan melodramatically and almost hysterically re- 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 141 

peated the essential acts of Sir Willoughby's comedy. 
He looked upon the lady as the quarry, himself as 
the hunter. He expected to find in her " a sprightly 
comrade, perfectly feminine, thoroughly mastered, 
young, graceful, comely and a lady of station. Once 
in his good keeping her lord would answer for her. 
And this," he felt, "was a manfully generous view 
of the situation." At a time when circumstances 
thundered that he and she must be forever sepa- 
rated, he recalled to her by letter the day when they had 
stood together in glorious sunshine planning the work 
of the New Republic. As he wrote, he seemed to see 
that " his moral grandeur on that day made him live 
as part of the splendor. " With that in mind he be- 
gan to ask himself, "Was it possible for the woman 
who had seen him then, to be faithless to him? 
The swift deduction from his own feelings cleansed 
her of a suspicion to the contrary, and he became 
light-hearted." Thus swayed by his heart rather than 
by his head, he permitted himself an extravagance 
of language and conduct which his reason, when it 
began to stem the current of his tumultuous blood, 
plainly taught him would cause him to look little less 
than ridiculous, if the lady should slip from him. 
The thought filled him with agony. "Anything," 
he cried, "but that! She will not refuse; I am 
bound to think so in common respect for myself. 
I have done tricks to make me appear a raging ape 
if she — Oh! she cannot, she will not refuse!" Be- 
side himself with fear, he looked for comfort within, 
and he found it by magnanimously thinking that he 
was without meanness of soul. " He had, he felt, a 



142 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

broad, full heart for the woman who would come to 
him, forgiving her, uplifting her, richly endowing 
her!" 

All of these feelings were Sir Willoughby's as well 
as Alvan's. His hasty engagement to Clara, his 
desire that she should reflect him and him only, his 
determination to mould her mind, his fear that she 
would escape him, his wish to be a conqueror, his 
agony at the thought that he might be made the sub- 
ject of contemptuous laughter, his willingness to go 
to any extreme if he might stand unashamed before 
the world, all are matched by the impulses of Alvan's 
heart. Considering this similarity of character be- 
tween the heroes, one is led to ask how it came about 
that "The Egoist" should be considered the greatest 
of Meredith's novels, and "The Tragic Comedians" 
the least significant. The conclusive answer is found 
in the very brief statement, that "The Tragic Come- 
dians" is not to be regarded as a novel at all. By 
this is meant, not that it is too short, although as 
originally published in The Fortnightly Review, from 
October, 1880, to February, 1881, it consisted of only 
fifteen chapters, but that it is neither more nor less 
than a plain presentation of those relations between 
the famous German socialist, Ferdinand Lassalle, 
and Helene von Donniges which resulted in the death 
of the former from wounds received in a duel with 
Yanko von Racowitza. Strangely blind to this fact, 
which was known at the time when the book was 
published, and totally forgetful that Meredith in the 
prologue expressly states that the pair of tragic 
comedians belong to history, " breathed the stouter 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 143 

air than fiction," and that not a single incident was 
invented, the critics have persisted in testing the vi^ork 
as a novel, and have therefore found room for little 
but disparagement. 

But George Meredith's reputation as a novelist 
and poet, and his evident desire that "The Tragic 
Comedians" should be looked upon as a story, both 
demand that some reason must be sought for the 
existence of a work which, treating fact without in- 
vention, is yet neither biography nor history; and 
surrounding actual persons and events with imagi- 
nation, is yet in no true sense fiction. Now the word 
"fantastical" has frequently been directed against 
the novels of George Meredith on the score that they 
give no pictures of possible life. Its reiteration at 
last provoked reply and the answer took the form 
of "The Tragic Comedians." Meredith may well 
be heard in his own defence: 

"The word * fantastical' is accentuated in our 
tongue to so scornful an utterance that the constant 
good service it does would make it seem an appointed 
instrument for reviewers of books of imaginative 
matter distasteful to those expository pens. Upon 
examination, claimants to the epithet will be found 
outside of books and of poets, in many quarters. 
Nature being one of the prominent, if not the fore- 
most. Wherever she can get to drink her fill of 
sunlight, she pushes forth fantastically. As for that 
wandering ship of the drunken pilot, the mutinous 
crew and the angry captain, called Human Nature, 
'fantastical' fits it no less completely than a conti- 
nental baby's skull-cap the stormy infant. Our 



144 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

sympathies, one may fancy, will be broader, our 
critical acumen shrewder, if we at once accept the 
thing as a part of us and worthy of study. The pair 
of tragic comedians of whom there will be question 
pass under this word as under their banner and 
motto. Their acts are incredible ... yet they are 
real creatures, exquisitely fantastical, strangely ex- 
posed to the world by a lurid catastrophe." 

With these words in mind, the reader of "The 
Tragic Comedians" plainly perceives that Sir 
Willoughby Patterne is no impossible personage, 
for Ferdinand Lassalle did his deeds in actual life 
before him; that Nevil Beauchamp's treatment of 
Rene^ de Croisnel upon two memorable occasions, 
was but the appearance in fiction of the great social- 
ist's conduct, first when dominated by his heart, and 
later when ruled by his head; and finally that Rich- 
ard Feverel's foolish persistence in a course of action 
which darkened his life forever, might be matched 
with an event in real life. 

The style of ''The Tragic Comedians" on the 
whole is remarkably unlike that of any of Meredith's 
other works, although now and then, rather strangely, 
one seems to catch a glimpse of his early manner, as 
seen in " Farina." There is almost a complete ab- 
sence of the aphorisms and epigrams which readers 
of Meredith always expect; and certainly no one can 
justly complain that the book is in any way obscure 
in expression or meaning. The sentences are 
brief, so frequently brief that the writing might be 
termed feverish. Accordingly, "The Tragic Come- 
dians," despite its value from some points of view. 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 145 

might be said much more properly than "The House 
on the Beach" to represent Mr. Meredith in his 
bones. It is certainly the least significant of his works 
and cannot be regarded as an important contribu- 
tion to literature. Nevertheless, the Prologue and 
the last chapter are typical of the novelist's writing. 
Certain paragraphs of the conclusion remind the 
reader of the closing words of ''Vittoria," and have 
an added interest in that they give voice to some 
of Meredith's conceptions of life. 

"Silent was that house of many chambers. That 
mass of humanity profusely mixed of good and evil, 
of generous ire and mutinous, of the passion for the 
future of mankind and vanity of person, magna- 
nimity and sensualism, high judgment, reckless in- 
discipline, chivalry, savagery, solidity, fragmentari- 
ness, was dust. The two men composing it, the un- 
tamed and the candidate for citizenship, in mutual 
dissension pulled it down. He perished of his weak- 
ness, but it was a strong man that fell. If his end 
was unheroic, the blot does not overshadow his 
life. His end was a derision because the animal in 
him ran him unchained and bounding to it. A 
stormy blood made wreck of a splendid intelligence. 
. . . That last word of his history ridicules the 
eulogy of partisan and devotee, and to commit the 
excess of worshipping is to conjure up by contrast 
a vulgar giant; for truth will have her just propor- 
tions, and vindicate herself upon a figure over- 
idealized by bidding it grimace leaving appraisers 
to get the balance of the two extremes. He was 
neither fool nor madman ; nor man to be adored : his 



146 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

last temptation caught him in the season before he 
had subdued his blood, and amid the multitudinously 
simple of this world stamped him tragic comedian: 
that is, a grand pretender, a self-deceiver, one of the 
lividlj ludicrous whom we cannot laugh at, but must 
contemplate to distinguish where the conduct strikes 
the discord with life. . . . The characters of the 
host of men are of the simple order of the comic; 
not many are of a stature and a complexity calling 
for the junction of the two muses to name them." 

With the publication of " The Tragic Comedians " 
in book form, late in 1880, Meredith closed the third 
decade of his literary career, the period of free 
range. From many points of view the ten years thus 
designated may be looked upon as the most important 
part of his life as author. The several works then 
produced evinced a sense of proportion, a conscious- 
ness of mastery, a disregard of arbitrary methods, 
which could not be unreservedly predicated of him 
in 1869 when his work as a journeyman was brought 
to an end. On the other hand, although it cannot 
be denied that he remained in full possession of all 
his powers through that later period which may be 
termed the decade of concentrated interest, the very 
fact that there was a limitation of range made it 
clear that in all probability the time of expansion 
was over, and that thereafter whatever energy re- 
mained in store would endeavor to put itself forth not 
in outspreading branch nor in upreaching stem, but 
rather in leaf and fruit and flower. At all events, 
the following decade of Meredith's literary career 
was not noted for the production of any such re- 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 147 

markable story as "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel," 
or of any such unusual study of character as " The 
Egoist;" but it was marked by the publication of 
"Diana of the Crossways," a novel which gained 
immediate popularity, and by the appearance of 
three other sustained works of fiction which attracted 
a respectful audience, if they did not earn undivided 
admiration. The battle had been long and hard, 
but few felt safe in denying that Meredith had proved 
himself a conqueror. Clearly his rightful place was 
among the leaders, in company with Dickens and 
Thackeray and George Eliot, 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 

THE PERIOD OF CONCENTRATED INTEREST — " DIANA 
OF THE CROSSWAYS" — "ONE OF OUR CONQUER- 
ORS" — "lord ormont and his aminta" — "the 

AMAZING marriage" — THE MEREDITH SCHOOL. 

After the artisan has shown himself sufficiently 
a master- workman to be received with noticeable re- 
spect by serious-minded men, he may not unjustly 
feel it his privilege to give emphatic expression to 
any thought which he deems important. Up to 
the time when critics somewhat freely admit that 
he is a stable living force, he is often compelled 
to make use of his powers in vindication of his 
right to be considered at all; but when indifference 
has given way to attention, and censure to approval, 
he may lay aside conscious effort to please others, 
and rest assured of a considerable audience inter- 
ested in what he is doing to please himself. 

Now there can be but little doubt that "The 
Adventures of Harry Richmond" and "The Egoist" 
placed Meredith high in the ranks of English novel- 
ists, and convinced many conservative readers that 
he was worthy of much more than mere passing 
notice. If therefore he had ceased to write in 

1880, he would not have been denied a permanent 

148 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 149 

and honored place in literature. Indeed, it may be 
questioned, in spite of the fact that his popularity in- 
creased with his later novels, whether the works which 
he wrote after the year just mentioned were in any 
way necessary to the stability of his renown. Never- 
theless, during the decade beginning in 1885, he 
felt moved to produce four sustained pieces of fic- 
tion which may be said to belong to a period of con- 
centrated interest, inasmuch as each of them dealt 
with complexities rising out of an unsuitable mar- 
riage. In "Diana of the Crossways" is given the 
story of a woman, who marrying without love, was 
afterward separated from her husband and made to 
take an anomalous and unhappy position before the 
world; in ''One of Our Conquerors" is presented 
a study of the attitude taken by society towards a 
man and a woman living together in a union un- 
sanctioned by Church and State but regarded, none 
the less, as sacred by the two chiefly concerned; and 
in "Lord Ormont and His Aminta" and also in 
"The Amazing Marriage," the reader is confronted 
with the unhappiness which results from a marked 
discrepancy between husband and wife in matters 
of rank, age, or inclination. With the possible ex- 
ception of the second, these four stories amply repay 
those who read simply to be amused, but for others 
who look upon the novelist as having a mission be- 
yond that of giving mere pleasure, they furnish in 
'^-ddition much food for thought. 

It may be concluded from these facts that Mere- 
dith found in certain phases of the marriage relation 
some of the gravest problems furnished by modern 



150 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

society. That he looked upon the questions as 
being more than a mere source of material for 
the novelist, is certainly shown by the fact that long 
after he had ceased the formal writing of fiction, he 
permitted himself to speak upon them at some length. 
The interview, as it was reported in The London 
Daily Mail, for September 24, 1904, stirred up so 
much comment both in England and in America 
that a few weeks later, Meredith in self-defence was 
led to break his usual silence upon personal matters, 
and to say that, at least in some respects, he had 
been misrepresented. As, however, he did not state 
that he wished to withdraw from the position which 
he was asserted to have taken, his earlier remarks 
are of some interest both in themselves and on 
account of their connection with the fundamental 
ideas of his later novels. In part he was accredited 
by The Daily Mail with saying: 

" It is a question in my mind whether a young girl 
married, say at eighteen, utterly ignorant of life, 
knowing little, as such a girl would of the man she 
is marrying, or of any other man, or of the world at 
all, should be condemned to live with him for the 
rest of her life. She falls out of sympathy with him, 
say, has no common taste with him, no real com- 
munication with him except a physical one. The 
life is nearly intolerable. Yet many married women 
go on with it from habit or because the world ter- 
rorizes them. Certainly, however, one day these 
present conditions of marriage will be changed. 
Marriage will be allowed for a certain period, say 
ten years, or, well I do not want to specify any par- 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 151 

ticular time. ... It will be a great shock, but look 
back and see what shocks there have been and 
what changes nevertheless, have taken place in this 
marriage business in the past! The difficulty is to 
make English people face such a problem." 

Although this idea of the optional marriage 
broken or renewed at the expiration of a fixed 
period, had been thrown out by Colney Durance 
in "One of Our Conquerors," it may be doubted 
whether Meredith, while writing his last four novels, 
had really made the theory a part of his own 
philosophy of life. Nevertheless, he did show 
clearly, that to his mind, society must needs enter 
into a careful study of the troubles resulting from 
strained marriage relations. In the hope, therefore, 
of awakening serious thought upon the matter, he 
unmistakably called upon the reader to sympathize 
with Diana Warwick despite her erratic career, to 
admit the injustice of the world in its attitude toward 
Nataly and Nesta Radnor, to feel that the elopement 
of Weyburn and Lady Aminta was justifiable, and 
to see that a renewal of the union between the Earl 
of Fleetwood and his wife was impossible. From 
this, it must be evident to one who looks beneath 
the surface, that as the earlier novels were an attack 
upon a sentimental deference to various long unques- 
tioned ideals, these later works were a sturdy assault 
upon the seemingly impregnable conventionality 
which looks upon the marriage bond as indissoluble. 

"Diana of the Crossways," the earliest of these 
somewhat daring novels, made its first appearance 
as a story of twenty-six chapters in The Fortnightly 



152 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Review, where it ran from June to December, 1884. 
As there pubHshed, it carried the fortunes of the 
heroine up to the point, where the opportune arrival 
of Lady Dunstane at the bedside of her friend 
saved Diana from death. The narration then closed, 
rather abruptly perhaps, with a note to the effect 
that those who cared for more of the erratic woman 
would find it in the extended chronicle. The mean- 
ing of this statement was made clear early in the 
following year when, by the insertion of numerous 
paragraphs, by a renumbering of chapters, and by 
the addition of seventeen more carrying on Diana's 
story to her marriage with Red worth, the " extended 
chronicle" was printed as a three-volume novel. 
The book became immediately successful, and the 
demand for it was so great that three editions were 
exhausted before the year was out. This popu- 
larity, furthermore, awakened a widened interest 
in the author's earlier writings and led Mere- 
dith to sanction the publication of a collected 
edition of all his prose work. Nor did the liking 
for Diana's story prove ephemeral. After success- 
fully weathering an unusually sharp and witty bur- 
lesque in Punch where, in the issue for October 18, 
1890, Mr. Rudolph Lehman published a skit under 
the heading, "* Joanna of the Cross Ways,' by 
George Verimyth, author of * Richard's Several Edi- 
tions,' 'The Aphorist,' 'Shampoo's Shaving Pot,' 
etc., etc.," the book continued to be in steady de- 
mand; and from all present appearance, it bids fair 
to be widely read even by the third and fourth 
generations. 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 153 

The story, it is true, moves with a certain swing and 
dash, which in part explains its perennial popularity, 
but the marked interest with which its first appear- 
ance was greeted, was due, no doubt, to the belief that 
in Diana Warwick was portrayed the famous and pop- 
ular Mrs. Caroline Norton. Both were Irish women 
of remarkable beauty, Diana a daughter of old 
Dan Merion, a wit of no little reputation; Mrs. 
Norton a granddaughter of Richard Brinsley Sheri- 
dan, the dramatist. Each married after an acquaint- 
ance altogether too brief, and almost from the be- 
ginning suffered from the husband's unfounded 
jealousy. Each after a time was made the subject 
of a ridiculous divorce suit, Augustus Warwick 
claiming that he had been injured by Lord Dannis- 
burgh, the Honorable George Norton that he had 
suffered at the hands of Lord Melbourne. More- 
over, each of the women wrote novels which were 
well received by the public; and finally Mrs. Norton 
for a time was under the unjust suspicion of hav- 
ing betrayed the confidence of a cabinet minister, 
just as Mrs. Warwick in the story imparted Percy 
Dacier's secret to Marcus Tonans. In passing, 
it is of interest to learn that the publication of 
"Diana of the Crossways" revived the almost for- 
gotten scandal about the Honorable Mrs. Norton, 
and led to an investigation which wholly exonerated 
the lady from blame. In consequence of this in- 
quiry, recent editions of the book bear an introduc- 
tory note written in Meredith's characteristic style: 

" A lady of high distinction for wit and beauty, the 
daughter of an illustrious Irish house, came under 



154 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

the shadow of calumny. It has latterly been ex- 
amined and exposed as baseless. The story of 
'Diana of the Crossways' is to be read as fiction." 
The discovery that Diana Warwick had a possible 
prototype in life was one of no very great diffi- 
culty, since Mrs. Norton — or rather. Lady Sterling- 
Maxwell, as by a second marriage she became — 
was well known and popular in England, almost 
from the time of her entrance into society until the 
day of her death in 1877. But twenty years after 
the publication of "Diana of the Crossways," an 
anonymous writer in Scribner's Magazine, for Feb- 
ruary, 1905, pointed out that a parallel no less inter- 
esting than that existing between Diana Warwick 
and Mrs. Norton, might be drawn between the same 
heroine and the French writer who called herself 
George Sand. Both were noted for their wit, as might 
be expected indeed since one was of Gaelic the other 
of Gallic blood. Each became united early in life 
to an uncongenial husband whose nature led the wife 
in either case to seek happiness in separation. Both 
became interested in the political matters of their 
respective countries, and both turned their hands 
to the writing of novels, for which they drew abun- 
dant material from their own experiences and from 
those of men and women surrounding them. Both 
were harassed by money cares, and were driven to 
extraordinary methods to escape them. Both were 
beset by lovers and found consolation in male friend- 
ship; and finally each emerged from her many di- 
verse perplexities into a state of peace, Diana be- 
coming united with the patient and loyal Redworth, 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 155 

and Madame Dudevant entering upon a well-earned 
tranquil existence at the close of her almost heroic 
struggles to reconcile passion and reason. One 
learns, also, perhaps not without some surprise, that 
Diana Warwick's French prototype, whom Meredith 
probably did not have in mind, and her English fore- 
runner, whom he certainly did, were almost exactly 
contemporary in their lives; for they were born within 
five years of each other, and hardly a twelve-month 
separated the days of their death. 

With the shades of two such famous women 
watching over her creation, Diana Warwick might 
well be expected to stand by herself in the gallery 
of Meredith's art. Yet as a matter of fact she now 
and then betrays, without detriment to herself or to 
her maker, a touch or even a trait which shows her 
unmistakable relationship with other women wrought 
by the same hand. Her easy, or rather, her uncon- 
scious disregard of certain minor social conventionali- 
ties, and her complete fearlessness or forgetfulness 
of possible gossip about her conduct, both recall 
Sandra Belloni; while her power of penetration and 
her firmness of character, both make her seem at 
times not unlike Cecilia Halkett. All in all, how- 
ever, she is much more like Clara Middleton than 
she is like any other woman whom Meredith has 
drawn: that is, a rapid reading of "The Egoist" and 
of ** Diana of the Crossways" leaves the impression 
that under the same conditions " the dainty rogue in 
porcelain" and "old Dan Merion's daughter" 
would each have conducted herself in no wise differ- 
ently from the other. Still, at no time could Diana 



156 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Warwick be mistaken for any of the several other 
attractive women appearing in Meredith's novels, 
as, for instance, Janet Ilchester and Cecilia Halkett, 
distantly viewed in memory might sometimes be. 
They, and many others with them, have the reader's 
admiration and respect; but Diana has more, she 
has his pity and his love. Despite the trial to which 
her erratic conduct puts one's patience, despite her 
woeful lack of wisdom when one would expect it to 
be most abundant, despite her audacious irresponsi- 
bility, her bewildering inconsistency, her incalculable 
impulsiveness, one does not hesitate to be enrolled 
beneath Tom Redworth's banner, and to follow the 
lady with that leader's perfect confidence and trust. 
The story in which the fortunes of this beautiful 
and attractive heroine were narrated, starts the read- 
er's mind now and then upon lines of thought lead- 
ing to sources from which consciously or uncon- 
sciously Meredith might have received some minor 
suggestions. In the first place, although " Diana of 
the Crossways'* is hardly a political novel in the 
same sense that " Beauchamp's Career " is, it certainly 
produces so nearly the effect of Trollope's "Parlia- 
mentary Series " as to make one feel that Lady Glen- 
cora and Mrs. Max Goesler and John Grey are just 
on the point of making their appearance and enter- 
ing into conversation with Diana and Redworth. 
Perhaps, too, this illusion is strengthened somewhat 
by the realization on the reader's part that Diana's 
separation from Augustus Warwick, and his sub- 
sequent threat to take legal measures for the restora- 
tion of marital rights, are almost exactly a repetition 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 157 

of Laura Kennedy's experiences with her husband 
as related in **Phineas Redux." Again, Warwick's 
accusations against Lord Dannisburgh in addition to 
being those of the Honorable George Norton against 
Lord Melbourne, were likewise those which rumor, 
nearly fifty years ago, said were to be made against 
Lord Palmerston, and which Meredith, it should not 
be forgotten, saw fit to comment upon in his news- 
paper days. 

Furthermore, here, as elsewhere, Meredith seemed 
to draw from his own earlier works. Diana's love for 
" antiques, " to which she ascribed her liking for Lord 
Dannisburgh, is, as a phrase, traceable to Lady 
Camper's stinging comment upon the amorous Gen- 
eral Ople's endeavor to be chivalrous, even after he 
had her word that she was seventy years old. 
Arthur Rhodes, in his devotion to Diana, is Braintop 
reproduced with certain improvements from "San- 
dra Belloni"; Lord Dannisburgh is the Duke of Bel- 
field from " Evan Harrington," but so much nobler in 
character, despite his many failings, as to be not un- 
worthy of a place near the elder Duke of Omnium 
in Trollope's "Can We Forgive Her" and "Phineas 
Phinn." Lady Dacier in her sanctimonious su- 
periority might have been studied from Mrs. Grandi- 
son in "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel"; and Mrs. 
Wathin is a gossip possibly sketched, though some- 
what coarsely perhaps, from the same model which 
furnished the delicate drawings of Lady Busshe 
and Lady Culmer in "The Egoist." On the whole, 
however, all these similarities are so remote as to 
be little more than fanciful; and do not in any way 



158 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

prevent "Diana of the Crossways" from being re- 
garded as one of Meredith's most original and most 
important contributions to Hterature. 

For a time after the publication of Diana's story, 
Meredith's career as a novelist seemed to be at an 
end. If by chance he was mentioned at all, his critic 
usually spoke of him as being an unsuccessful com- 
petitor with Dickens and Thackeray rather than as 
a living author. Nevertheless, Meredith was by 
no means keeping silence. Occasional contributions 
in prose and verse were printed in The Fortnightly 
Review J The Pall Mall Gazette y and elsewhere; and 
two important volumes of poetry were published 
in successive years, "Ballads and Poems of Tragic 
Life," in 1887, and "A Reading of Earth," in 1888. 
The latter book was closely related in contents with 
"Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth" which 
had appeared five years before; that is, two years in 
advance of "Diana of the Crossways"; while the 
earlier volume had considerable in common with the 
partly suppressed collection of 1862, " Modern Love 
and Poems of the English Roadside with Poems 
and Ballads." Even a somewhat cursory reading 
of Meredith's books of verse beginning with the 
"Poems" of 1851, and passing on through the 
four volumes just mentioned to the three succeed- 
ing collections, "The Empty Purse," published 
in 1892; "Odes in Contribution to the Song of 
French History," in 1898, and "A Reading of Life," 
in 1901; will show that he was developing a phil- 
osophy and pointing out a unity between Man and 
Nature such as had not been preached by any 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 159 

earlier English poet — a philosophy and a unity, in- 
deed, which, as early as 1883, Meredith himself 
summed up in a single sonnet: 

earth's secret 

Not solitarily in fields we find 

Earth's secret open, though one page is there; 

Her plainest, such as children spell, and share 

With bird and beast; raised letters for the blind. 

Not where the troubled passions toss the mind. 

In turbid cities, can the key be bare. 

It hangs for those who hither thither fare, 

Close interthreading Nature with our kind. 

They, hearing History speak, of what men were, 

And have become, are wise. The gain is great 

In vision and solidity; it lives. 

Yet at a thought of life apart from her. 

Solidity and vision lose their state. 

For earth, that gives the milk, the spirit gives. 

Certain phases of this philosophy — of this need 
for man to learn from Nature whether she appear in 
field or wood or in the thickly populated city — may 
be found in every one of Meredith's novels. But it 
is safe to say that in "One of Our Conquerors" — 
the novel to which Meredith unexpectedly treated 
his readers in 1891 — there is a stricter adherence 
than in any of his other prose works, to the terms 
which he systematically employed in the poems bear- 
ing the burden of his message. Earth and Nature, 
for instance, are used almost interchangeably; and 
either or both may be referred to as the Great 
Mother in the sense that from her all things spring. 
On the other hand, Society, together with the laws 
and the conventionalities which Society has dictated, 



160 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

is given the designation of Circumstance. Now, 
according to Meredith, these two forces, to one of 
which Man owes his origin, and by the other of 
which, when it acts alone, he is more often delayed 
than assisted in his advancement towards fullest 
development, are not always mutually helpful. 
Between them, rather, Man is carrying on an " epic 
encounter." Nor seldom is he in a quandary. Often 
he is compelled to pause and ask himself. Is Man in 
fact harmonious with the Great Mother when he 
yields to the pressure of his nature — that is, to his 
impulsive human nature ? To this question his rea- 
son can give but one answer, No! "Man may be 
rebellious against his time and his Laws, but if he is 
really for Nature, he is not lawless." Where, then, 
he may justly inquire, is to be sought the power, the 
wisdom which shall dictate the laws transcending 
those formulated by Society? It is found resident, 
reason again replies, in the Intellect, that attribute of 
Man which distinguishes him from the brute, and 
which by its development has filled the Great Mother 
with joy. Not yet, however, is she sure that Man 
is to be her crowning work. The heart, that is the 
beast within, would ravin hourly if it could, nor is 
the Intellect at all times the conqueror. The head 
may yet be the victim; the heart may yet gather 
force again to be 

"The lion of our deserts' trodden weeds; 



Again to be the lordly paw 
Naming his appetites his needs 
Behind a decorative cloak." 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 161 

In this struggle between the heart and the head for 
supremacy, Circumstance, the collective term by 
which Meredith names the methods agreed upon 
by man as being those best suited for his life with 
his fellows, is far less helpful to the head, and gives 
far more assistance to the heart than should be ex- 
pected. Man, however, is not himself unaware of 
the conflict, and he even feels called upon now and 
then to make his excuse to the Great Mother. As 
Meredith puts it at the beginning of the ninteenth 
chapter of "One of Our Conquerors": 

"There is at times in the hearts of all men of active 
life a vivid wild moment or two of dramatic dialogue 
between the veteran antagonists. Nature and Cir- 
cumstance, where they, whose business it should be 
to be joyfully one, furiously split; and the Dame is 
up with her shrillest querulousness to inquire of her 
offspring for the distinct original motive of his con- 
duct. ... If he be not an alienated issue of the 
Great Mother, he will strongly incline to her view, 
that he put himself into harness with a machine 
going the dead contrary way of her welfare and there- 
by wrote himself a donkey for his present reading. 
. , . But it is asked by the disputant. If we had fol- 
lowed her exclusively, how far should we have 
travelled from our starting point ? We of the world 
and its prizes and duties must do her an injury to 
make her tongue musical to us, and her argument 
worthy of our attention!" 

Society or Circumstance, Meredith, of course, 
would not look upon as being always reprehensible; 
but when, by misdirection or perversion, it stands 



162 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

in the way of Man's advancement, it could not to 
his mind be too severely condemned. It is this 
thought which spurred him to make in his many 
novels repeated attacks upon the widespread and 
unquestioning acceptance of traditions and estab- 
lished customs. In "One of Our Conquerors" 
this war upon sentimentalism, as he called it, was 
especially directed against the shallowness of re- 
ligion as commonly received, and against the denial 
to woman of her proper place in the present scheme 
of things. Meredith, it is true, did not in his 
work make any direct and sustained assault upon the 
church; but he did take evident delight in heaping 
ridicule upon the clergymen of his novels, nearly all 
of whom were guilty of an elephantine belief in their 
own superiority. The colorless curate of Lobourne 
in "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" and the Rev- 
erend Mr. Marter in "Sandra Belloni" are of course 
hardly more than lay figures; but the Honorable 
and Reverend Herbert Duffian in "Evan Harring- 
ton" and the Reverend Dr. Middleton in "The 
Egoist," unlike as they are in many respects, might 
very easily be regarded as representatives of that 
type of minister whose choice of profession is due, 
not to the winsome attractiveness of the Nazarene, 
but rather to mere accident or to thoughtless follow- 
ing of the line of least resistance. 

Not far removed from these two men although 
much more ponderous in every way is the Reverend 
Septimus Barmby. Appearing early in " One of Our 
Conquerors," he became almost omnipresent, for even 
in his absence the stentorian booming of his voice, 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 163 

like "the rolling roar of curfew," seemed to be in con- 
stant reverberation. Devoted to the spirit of things 
that are, he could not interpret the fundamental 
ideas of Christianity in such a way as to make them 
a help in solving the most important problems of 
modern society. Regarding himself in his office far 
too seriously, he directed his eye towards old insti- 
tutions and was blind to the changes taking place 
about him. He failed to see that education is be- 
coming less and less the mission of the Church, and 
thus he remained a member of that class whom 
Meredith had in mind when in a recent interview 
he said: 

" I hope that ultimately we shall take teaching out 
of the hands of the clergy and that we shall be able 
to instruct the clergy in the fact that Christianity 
is a spiritual religion and not one that is to be gov- 
erned by material conditions. A spiritual God I 
most perfectly believe in. I have that belief constant- 
ly before me — I feel it within me; but a material 
God that interferes in material, moral affairs I have 
never seen; and it is, I am sorry to say, for the mate- 
rial God that the clergy seem to be striving." 

Of far greater importance than Meredith's ar- 
raignment of the clergy and their calling, was his 
criticism of the place which Society has accorded 
to women. Of course Skepsey's belief that girls 
have but one mission on earth and should therefore 
be healthy for the sake of it, may be dismissed with 
a smile. Few men nowadays are willing to con- 
fess that they hold to the idea, although silence by 
no means necessarily proves the absence of belief. 



164 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Colney Durance undoubtedly overstated the truth 
when he declared that woman, because of her edu- 
cation, is unfitted to speak an opinion on any matter 
external to the household; but he made Nataly Rad- 
nor see plainly that society " gives an exotic fostering 
to the senses of women instead of the strengthening 
breath of vital air, and that, as a result, the model 
women of men make pleasant slaves, not true mates." 
So true is this in general, so thoroughly is woman 
the slave of existing conventions, so surely is she the 
artificial production of a state that exalts her while 
she sacrifices daily and hourly to the artificial, that 
Victor Radnor's opinions may be regarded as being 
those of " the entrenched majority." What would be 
the result, he asked himself, if men could " deorient- 
alize their gleeful notion of women and dis-Turk 
themselves by inviting woman's voluble tongue to 
sisterly occupation in the world, as in the domestic 
circle ? " In reply he had the old argument, itself a 
series of questions, " Is she moral ? Does she mean 
to be harmless ? Is she not untamable Old Nature ? 
Would she not, when once on an equal footing with 
her lordly half, show herself that wanton old thing, 
the empress of disorderliness ? " Thus rendered ap- 
prehensive, Radnor allied himself with the average 
man, "objecting to the occult power of women, as 
we have the women now while legislating to main- 
tain them so, and forbidding a step to a desperately 
wicked female world lest the step should be to 
wickeder." Radnor's opinions of course were far 
from being Meredith's own. By his very method of 
presenting them, he made it evident that he looked 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 165 

upon them with contempt, and that he was freely of- 
fering himself as the voluntary champion of woman- 
kind. That he found himself at the head of no 
numerous host was due perhaps to the fact that an 
enthroned Society by its advocacy of existing laws 
and rules and habits had produced in woman "those 
timidities, at present urging her to support Estab- 
lishments." 

The vehicle by which Meredith conveyed to his 
readers these radically destructive criticisms of long 
accepted ideas, was a story not unlikely in itself to 
shock the British public. In early manhood a 
certain Mr. Victor Radnor married a wealthy 
woman, several years his senior. Tiring of her, he 
became interested in a Miss Nataly Dreighton, to 
whose attractive qualities his wife was constantly 
calling his attention. After a struggle to remain 
true to his marriage vows, he deserted Mrs. Bur- 
man Radnor in the company of her young friend, 
and entered into a union which both he and Miss 
Dreighton looked upon as sacred. The novel opens 
at a time when their daughter was entering upon 
womanhood and is concerned with the treatment 
which society meted out to her and her parents. 
Thus baldly told, the story could not be objected 
to on the ground that the situations were impossible 
or that they were not at least occasionally ac- 
quiesced in by modern society. The immorality 
of which the book was accused lay, it was ad- 
mitted, not so much in the plot as in the teach- 
ings. Two persons had violated the laws of the 
Established Church, yet the reader was expected 



166 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

to approve of their conduct. Their daughter, al- 
beit innocent, was none the less illegitimate, yet 
Meredith was willing to lift a free-lance in her de- 
fence. This certainly was carrying things with a 
pretty high hand. "Why, the very foundations of 
society are being attacked!" cried the horrified 
critic. "Pray, what would Mr. Meredith have? 
Does he not realize that these ideas are subversive 
of Church and State — nay, that they are even more 
— say anarchical in the extreme?" Now, it is not 
at all unlikely that Meredith knew what he was 
about. A close observer of society, he detected 
more than one spot of weakness; and thereupon, 
with unflinching hand, he pointed out the source of 
trouble and suggested what to his mind would work 
a cure. He could not agree with one of his charac- 
ters who freely admitted the errors of society, but 
felt that "the assertion of our individuality in op- 
position to the Government of Society — this ex- 
isting Society — is a toss of the cap for the erasure of 
our civilization," rather he held with that other who 
"flung the gauntlet at externally venerable Institu- 
tions and treated Society as a discrowned monarch 
on trial for an offence against a more precious: viz., 
the individual cramped by brutish laws: the individ- 
ual with the ideas of our times, righteously claiming 
expansion out of the clutches of a narrow old-world 
disciplinarian — that giant hypocrite." 

If the teachings and the plot of " One of Our Con- 
querors" had not stood in the way of its popularity, 
its style alone would probably have kept it as little 
known as it is. Meredith has always been ac- 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 167 

cused, and perhaps not unjustly, of being a maker of 
phrases. By this is not meant here, his power of 
epigrammatic utterance, a power which John Mor- 
ley praised with no uncertain tone in an address on 
"Aphorisms," but rather his tendency to treat 
language as material which lends itself to any shap- 
ing. This characteristic of his style is in almost 
direct opposition to clearness, which has come to 
be looked upon as the chief desideratum of the 
essayist and the novelist. Meredith, however, 
seemed often to prefer the involved to the simple, 
the ornate to the plain; and in "One of Our 
Conquerors" the tendency certainly became an 
obsession. The reader is not told in so many 
words that Radnor kissed his wife, but that "he 
performed his never-omitted lover's homage," Mr. 
Fenellan did not drink the Old Veuve, but "crushed 
a delicious gulp of the wine that foamed along the 
channel of flavor"; Skepsey instead of feeling the 
size and hardness of the butcher's arm, "performed 
the national homage to muscle"; and in giving a 
cordial greeting to Lady Grace, "Victor's festival- 
lights were kindled, beholding her; cressets on the 
window-sill, lamps inside." Such writing, it cannot 
be denied, is both bewildering and exasperating to 
almost every reader; and Meredith, therefore, had 
no just cause of complaint if his own joy in weav- 
ing such fantastic garments for his thought was his 
chief reward. Certainly after the publication of 
" One of Our Conquerors," many of his old readers 
fell away or at most contented themselves with 
memories of what he had written before, while the 



168 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

younger generation who, like Sarah Battle, occa- 
sionally found time to turn aside from whist-playing 
and to unbend the mind over a book, took no special 
pleasure in anything which Meredith had to say. 

Radically different as "One of Our Conquerors" 
was from Meredith's earlier novels in its strongly 
didactic tone, its plot, and its strangely involved 
style, the book struck its roots deep into all that its 
author had published before it. Egoism and senti- 
mentalism were still made objects of attack; Colney 
Durance was a maker of phrases, as were Mrs. 
Mountstuart in " The Egoist," and Adrian Harley in 
'*The Ordeal of Richard Feverel"; the Duvidney 
sisters in their worship of their cousin Victor Rad- 
nor were like the Patterne ladies in their blind adora- 
tion of the egoistical Sir Willoughby, while in their 
prim regard for the proprieties, they showed them- 
selves to be what the unmarried Pole sisters must 
in their old age have become. Mrs. Marsett is un- 
deniably like Mrs. Mount, although, happily, Nesta 
Radnor's endeavor to save the woman from herself 
was much more successful than was Richard Fev- 
erel's attempt to reclaim the woman who had been 
hired to entice him away from his wife. Again, the 
several references in Chapter Five to the Rajah's 
visit to London recall more than one passage in 
"The Shaving of Shagpat," while the street brawl 
has not a little in common with the tent scene in 
"Sandra Belloni." Even more striking than this is 
a remarkable similarity between a passage in the 
novel and the first poem of "Modern Love." 
Although Nataly Radnor could not approve of her 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 169 

husband's scheme for the great assembly at Lake- 
lands, she would not in any way undertake to thwart or 
disappoint him. Stifling her own feelings, therefore, 

"She could have turned to him, to show him she 
was in harmony with the holy night and loving 
world but for the fear founded upon a knowledge of 
the man he was; it held her frozen to the semblance 
of a tombstone lady beside her lord in the aisle where 
honor kindles pitchy blackness with its legions at 
one movement. Verily it was the ghost of Mrs. 
Burman come to the bed, between them." 

Nearly thirty years before, Meredith had written 
of a husband and wife between whom the spirit of 
jealousy had risen; and at that time he used almost 
exactly the same thought and phraseology: 

"By this he knew she wept with waking eyes: 
That at his hand's light quiver by her head. 
The strange low sobs that shook their common bed, 
Were called into her with a sharp surprise. 
And strangled mute, like little gaping snakes. 
Deadly venomous to him. She lay 
Stone-still, and the long darkness flowed away 
With muffled pauses. Then, as midnight makes 
Her giant heart of Memory and Tears 
Drink the pale drug of silence, and so beat 
Sleep's heavy measure, they from head to feet 
Were moveless, looking through their dead black years, 
By vain regret scrawled over the blank wall. 
Like sculptured effigies they might be seen 
Upon their marriage tomb, the sword between; 
Each wishing for the sword that severs all." 

It is, furthermore, of some interest to discover that 
a strong tendency to use the methods of Dickens re- 



170 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

appeared after many years in this later novel. Skep- 
sey, the pugilist, and Martha Pridden, the evangelist, 
are quite in Dickens's style, and their union is just 
what the elder novelist would have brought about. 
The Reverend Septimus Barmby and the Rever- 
end Groseman Buttermore must have been fellow- 
workers with the Reverend Mr. Chadband, although, 
despite their heavy self-respect, they are much more 
delicately drawn. The statement that "Mrs. John 
Cormyn entered voluminous, and Mrs. Peter Yatt 
effervescent" shows the influence of Dickens's well- 
known custom of reducing character or appearance 
to a single trait without loss of illusion; and evidently 
the whole chapter describing the concert at Lake- 
lands, and that other dealing with the agony which 
the Duvidney ladies were made to suffer by their lap- 
dog's disgraceful behavior are in the manner of the 
master of English caricature. It would seem from 
this that Meredith in his later novels showed at least 
a slight tendency to return upon himself, to revert to 
methods employed in his earliest work. Certainly, 
when the reader is told, almost as the last word in 
"The Amazing Marriage," that Carinthia Jane 
married Owain Wythan, " because of his wooing her 
with dog's eyes instead of words," he must feel, 
recalling the references to the "old dog's eyes" in 
Ripton Thompson's head, that Meredith had harked 
back to a passage in his first novel. 

Although "One of Our Conquerors" never en- 
joyed any great popularity, there was an attempt 
at the time of its publication to place it before a 
larger audience than had been reached by any of 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 171 

Meredith's other works upon their first appearance. 
To this end, therefore, beginning in October, 1890, 
and running well on into the following year, the 
novel was printed simultaneously in The Fortnightly 
Review of London, The Australasian of Melbourne, 
and the Sunday issues of The New York Sun. Im- 
mediately upon its completion as the leading serial 
in each of these periodicals, it was of course pub- 
lished in book form. Even before that, however, 
it had been pretty severely dealt with by the critics, 
but Meredith was not to be provoked to any attempt 
at self-defence. Nevertheless, his next novel, " Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta" seemed to betray a wil- 
lingness on his part to profit from the words of those 
who had spoken in disparagement of the earlier 
work, for if the style of "One of Our Conquerors" 
may be described as ornate, intricate, and obscure, 
surely that of the novel which succeeded it must be 
looked upon as simple in the extreme. Readers of 
The Pall Mall Magazine, where the latter story ap- 
peared between December, 1893, and July, 1894, 
were especially struck by this remarkable change of 
method, and commented somewhat forcibly upon the 
fact. From this, two opposite effects resulted : on one 
hand, those readers who felt a sort of sentimental 
superiority through a professed or an actual liking 
of Meredith's earlier style, deplored what they re- 
garded as a falling off in his powers; on the other, 
many who had never been able to read Meredith 
at all, freely admitted their pleasure in a work un- 
marred by what they had been accustomed to term 
a tendency towards a senseless jugglery with words. 



172 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Thus, on the whole, "Lord Ormont and His Aminta" 
rather added to its author^s fame than detracted 
from it, for if there really was an appreciable lessen- 
ing in the number of old admirers, there was a com- 
pensating accession of new readers, many of whom 
soon had their eyes opened to the value of his earlier 
and more important works. 

But whatever influence the voice of the critic may 
be assumed to have had upon the diction of "Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta," it did not cause Meredith 
to suspect the validity of his message, nor lead him 
to build his plot in accordance with commonly ac- 
cepted ideas of morality. He was, perhaps, less 
formally didactic in this novel than in the one pre- 
ceding it, but that he did not withdraw from his posi- 
tion of attack upon popular opinions about the mar- 
riage relation was made clear in at least two ways ; 
he evidently approved of Aminta's determination to 
leave Lord Ormont when she found that she did not 
love him; and he had no hesitation in picturing her 
later life with Weyburn upon the Continent as one of 
unalloyed happiness. She had idealized Lord Or- 
mont and for that sentimentalism she was subjected 
to a period of suffering. After a time, when she became 
better acquainted both with herself and her husband, 
she undertook to adjust her life to conventional 
theories and bear without complaint the yoke 
which she had impulsively taken upon herself. 
While the roseate hues were thus giving place to 
gray, as Meredith puts it in another connection, 
Aminta was thrown into close companionship 
with her husband's private secretary, Matthew 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 173 

Weyburn, who happened to have been an acquaint- 
ance of her school-girl days. Without effort on the 
part of either to avoid the other, since neither he 
nor she for one moment contemplated the possibility 
of a change in their relations, the two for many 
months lived side by side as friends. Then, in one 
of those rare moments of far-reaching vision which 
Meredith, no less than Browning, insists are some- 
times given to mankind, the Lady Aminta and 
Matthew Weyburn saw "the difference between 
men's decrees for their convenience, and God's 
laws." From then on, Meredith managed matters 
with even more than his usual skill, so much so, in- 
deed, that the reader, when he lays down the book, 
is somewhat shocked to realize that he has almost 
unconsciously been led into an approval of what 
society regards as an immoral situation. 

Closely related, or even almost unified, as "One 
of Our Conquerors" and "Lord Ormont and His 
Aminta" are seen to be from the point of view of 
the teaching which they have in common, they afford 
an unusually systematic, and therefore striking con- 
trast in details of plot-structure. Victor Radnor 
married a woman much his senior, Lord Ormont one 
many years his junior; Nataly Dreighton found her- 
self excluded from society because her union with 
Radnor was illegal. Lady Aminta was not given the 
place which was her due, despite the fact that she 
was truly the wife of the disappointed military hero; 
Radnor endeavored to force Nataly to a place which 
she did not desire. Lord Ormont refused to allow 
his wife to take a position where she wished to stand; 



174 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

Mrs. Burman was abandoned bj her young husband, 
Lord Ormont by his young wife. Both the elder 
man and the elder woman lived many years, and 
thus prevented the marriage of those who had de- 
serted them ; but each forgave the unhappiness which 
had been inflicted, and in dying removed the obstacle 
which interfered with the legal union of the younger 
husband and the younger wife. At this point, how- 
ever, the contrast in details was again resumed. 
Hastening home with the news of Mrs. Burman 
Radnor's death, Victor found Nataly dying, and in 
the agony of his grief and disappointment gave way 
to a mental derangement from which he never re- 
covered. Lord Ormont, on the other hand, six 
months before his death accidentally encountered 
Matthew Weyburn in Switzerland, and, although 
shocked at the meeting with his wife's companion, 
gave him such courtly treatment as caused Aminta, 
when she heard of it, to say, "I thank heaven we 
know him to be one of the true noble men." Be- 
yond this the reader learns little but that Aminta 
became a widow. Meredith leaves it to our im- 
agination to decide whether she and Weyburn felt the 
need of a clergyman's blessing, or whether they 
regarded the approval of conscience as all-sufficient. 
Closely related by similarity of teaching and by 
contrast of detail as '^Lord Ormont and His Aminta" 
is with the novel which immediately preceded it, it 
is not less strongly, although perhaps less systemati- 
cally, connected with still other works by Meredith. 
On the whole, the atmosphere is reminiscent of 
"Diana of the Crossways" and anticipatory of 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 175 

"The Amazing Marriage," while in particular Am- 
inta's ride to Steignton in some ways recalls the 
journey of the Duchess of Dewlap down to Bath in 
''The Tale of Chloe"; and the chapter entitled A 
Marine Duet carries back one's thought to Richard 
and Lucy meeting as Ferdinand and Miranda and to 
Wilfred and Sandra sitting beside Wilming Weir. 
Again the school life at Cuper's is strikingly sugges- 
tive of Harry Richmond's experience at Rippenger's; 
and certainly the interest taken by Weyburn and 
Eglett in English pugilism brings to mind Skepsey's 
main source of pleasure on one hand, and the chief 
incident of the Earl of Fleetwood's rather grim 
bridal trip on the other. 

In the matter of character study, too, similar con- 
nections may be pointed out : Lady Charlotte Eglett 
in her indifference to Aminta's fate is like Mrs. Lov- 
ell in her unsympathetic attitude toward Dahlia 
Fleming; INIrs. Nargett Pagnel in her affected pro- 
nunciation and her insistence upon an assumed ped- 
igree reminds a reader of the Countess de Saldar; 
and even Weyburn in his position as secretary to 
Lord Ormont recalls Evan Harrington in his rela- 
tion to the Honorable Melville Jocelyn. All in all, 
therefore, despite a reduction in number of charac- 
ters, and a change in matter of diction, "Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta" does not, as some critics 
would have us believe, stand apart from Meredith's 
other novels. A little reflection shows the threads 
of connection between it and them to be many and 
vital. 

Before the story of Lord Ormont's married life 



176 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

was reprinted as a book from the pages of The Pall 
Mall Magazine, the firm of Charles Scribner's Sons 
announced that arrangements had been made with 
Mr. Meredith to pubHsh, as the leading serial of 
their magazine for 1895, a novel which he called "The 
Amazing Marriage." The title suggested that 
Meredith was still interested in problems presented 
by relations existing between man and wife; and when 
the story appeared, its readers found that the author 
was studying the unhappy marriage from a new point 
of view. It did not involve the question of the elderly 
husband and the young wife as presented in "Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta," or of the young husband 
and the elderly wife as given in "One of Our Con- 
querors " ; neither, as in both these novels, were matters 
complicated by the introduction of a union obviously 
suitable yet defiantly illegal. Instead, the conditions 
assumed were not much unlike those in "Diana of 
the Crossways." As there was no discrepancy in 
age between Dan Merion^s daughter and Augustus 
Warwick, so there was none between Carinthia 
Kirby and the Earl of Fleetwood ; but there was such 
a difference of taste in one case, and of taste and rank 
in the other, as to bring about a separation of husband 
and wife. Each of the husbands found himself at 
last in a ridiculous position, with nobody but himself 
to blame. Warwick drove Diana from him by foster- 
ing a foolish jealousy, Fleetwood deserted Carinthia 
because he could not brook her birth and breed- 
ing. Each of the men in time had his eyes opened 
to his error, but only to find that the day for 
repentance had gone by. When they would wil- 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 177 

lingly have offered devoted allegiance to the women 
whom they had scorned, they found themselves un- 
able to awaken any sympathetic response. 

Thus, in the main, the situations in the two novels 
are parallel, and such differences as are to be sought, 
must be looked for, not in details of plot, but in mat- 
ters of character. The reader sees Augustus War- 
wick almost not at all, but thinks of him as a force 
inferable only through his effect upon Diana, where- 
as Lord Fleetwood, proud and erratic, cruel and 
selfish, is almost never absent from the scene, and 
stands out hardly less strongly than Sir Willoughby 
Patterne or Nevil Beauchamp in Meredith's earlier 
novels. A much more striking contrast in char- 
acter study, however, is that existing between the 
heroines of the two stories. Diana Warwick is al- 
ways hasty and impulsive, the Countess of Fleetwood 
is never other than calm and statuesque; one is at all 
times nervously a-quiver, the other firmly self-con- 
trolled; the former is restless, acquisitive, and pas- 
sionate, the latter is patient, receptive, and re- 
strained. This antithesis of character might be 
carried out in almost endless detail; but convincing 
evidence of the complete contrast between Diana 
and Carinthia may be found in two citations from 
the novels in which the women appear. In the 
first Diana is pictured as walking in the woods 
with Redworth three days before her marrage 
to him. 

"She was Irish; therefore intuitively decorous in 
amatory challenges and interchanges. But she was 
an impulsive woman, and foliage was thick around. 



178 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

only a few small birds and heaven seeing; and peni- 
tence and admiration sprang the impulse. It had 
to be this or a burst of weeping : — she put a kiss upon 
his arm. She had omitted to think that she was 
dealing with a lover, a man of smothered fire, who 
would be electrically alive to the act. Redworth had 
his impulse. He kept it under — she felt the big 
breath he drew in. . . . The impulse of each had 
wedded; in expression and repression; her sensibility 
told her of the stronger." 

Beside this may be placed the passage in which 
the Countess of Fleetwood took leave of her husband. 
Towards the end of a long conversation in which he 
strove to win her back to her old regard for him, she 
silenced him in these words: 

"'Do not beg of me, my lord. I have my brother 
and my son. No more of husband for me! God 
has given me a friend, too, — a man of humble heart, 
my brother's friend, my dear Rebecca's husband. 
He can take them from me; no one but God. See 
the splendid sky we have.' — With these words she 
barred the gates on him; at the same time she be- 
stowed the frank look of an amiable face and brilliant 
in the lively red of her exercise, in its bent-brow 
curve along the forehead, out of the line of beauty, 
touching, as her voice was, to make an undertone 
of anguish swell an ecstasy. So he felt it, for his 
mood was now the lover's." 

Surely two things are made clear by these quota- 
tions : first, the marked contrast between the wom- 
en; and then, perhaps of even more importance 
than that, the strong moral basis which underlies 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 179 

Meredith's assault upon the conventional marriage 
arrangements of the present day. 

Aside from the fact that "The Amazing Marriage" 
is closely connected in one way and another with the 
three prose works which immediately preceded it 
and which with it constituted Meredith's main con- 
tribution to literature during a period of concen- 
trated interest, it is a matter of some interest that 
his last piece of fiction should have elements gath- 
ered from every one of his earlier novels. To go 
back to Meredith's second period — the first of his 
novel writing — it is clear that Sir Austin Feverel's 
"Pilgrim's Scrip" bears very nearly the same rela- 
tion to "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" as Captain 
John Kirby's "Book of Maxims" to "The Amazing 
Marriage." Again, although Gower Woodseer in 
the latter work may, perhaps, be in some respects a 
study of Robert Louis Stevenson, he is none the less 
a reappearance of John Raikes from " Evan Harring- 
ton." That he is more complex and better bred, one 
cannot deny, but surely his worry about his shabby 
clothes, and his marriage with Madge Winch recall 
Raikes's care for his dilapidated hat, and his union 
with Polly Wheedle. From another point of view, 
that of love for nature, it is true that Woodseer has 
little in common with Raikes; but this only serves to 
bring him into relationship with another character 
drawn by Meredith — Vernon Whitford in "The 
Egoist." Further, the love which Carinthia and 
Chillon Kirby have for each other is much like that 
existing between Georgiana Ford and her half- 
brother Merthyr Powys, in both "Sandra Belloni" 



180 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

and "Vittoria"; and it may also be held, perhaps, 
that the elder Countess of Fleetwood by her refined 
cruelty more than once reminds the reader of the 
von Lenkenstein ladies in "Vittoria." Again, the 
Earl's return to Carinthia after the ill-treatment 
which he had dealt out to her, and his disappoint- 
ment that her love was no longer his, both of course 
suggest the similar situation in "Rhoda Fleming." 

On the other hand, it must be admitted that the 
connection between "The Amazing Marriage" and 
the first two novels of Meredith's third period 
is not very strongly pronounced, unless it may be 
thought that the elder Woodseer has something in 
common with Captain Jasper Welsh in "The Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond," and that the Lady 
Arpington was drawn from the model which furnished 
Rosamund Culling in "Beauchamp's Career." 
But the Earl of Fleetwood, in his egoistical de- 
termination to keep his word at any cost, and 
in his eager desire to escape being made ridicu- 
lous, is beyond a doubt like Sir Willoughby Pat- 
terne in "The Egoist," and, therefore, also like 
Sigismund Alvan in "The Tragic Comedians." 
Finally, so far as minor characters are concerned, 
the Ladies Endor, Eldritch, and Cowry, as studies 
of gossips, are second only in importance to the in- 
imitable Ladies Bussche and Culmer in Meredith's 
greatest work. 

The more important lines of relationship between 
"The Amazing Marriage" and the earlier novels of 
Meredith's fourth period have already been pointed 
out in another connection; but it may be added in 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 181 

passing, that old John Kirby had the same reasons 
as had Lord Ormont for being dissatisfied with the 
treatment which his country accorded him, and that 
Carinthia's engagement, which was as hasty as 
Diana's to Warwick or as Aminta's to Ormont, was 
followed like theirs by a long period of unhappiness 
due, in keeping with Meredith's theories, to the 
lady's permitting her heart to act without the guid- 
ance of her reason. 

This endeavor to show that Meredith's latest 
prose- work is to a great extent the product of forces 
resident in all his earlier novels, is not unlikely to 
give offence to many of his admirers; as also is 
the assumption persisted in, throughout this whole 
study, that a network of analogies and similarities 
binds his novels into what might be termed a fabric 
of firmest texture. Doubtless some readers of Mere- 
dith would be inclined to feel that not a few of the 
threads are pretty tenuous; yet all but those whose 
enthusiasm blurs their vision must see that, large and 
thickly settled as the world of Meredith's novels is, 
its chief inhabitants, if not all of one nation, are 
plainly all of one family. If it be objected that this 
proves too much in that it detracts from Meredith's 
fame rather than adds to it, the reply must be made 
that no one more quickly than Meredith himself 
would regret the existence of a renown built upon 
insecure foundations. "Lord, save me from my 
friends," has been the prayer of many a man before 
the present time, as it will be that of many another 
in time to come ; and Meredith unfortunately has not 
been without a bitter knowledge of the need of that 



182 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

petition. He is a great novelist — the greatest, let it 
be conceded for the nonce, among English writers — 
but he is not Shakespeare, as some admirers would 
have us believe, nor perhaps, save now and then, 
even Shakesperean, as others would strive to make 
us admit. That he has firmly placed himself in no 
mean niche in the temple of permanent literature, 
only a blinded or a prejudiced observer can deny; 
but to assert that he is one of that company to 
which, as yet, only Homer and Dante and Shakes- 
peare belong makes both Meredith and his undis- 
criminating admirers ridiculous. 

In general, of course, it is always hazardous to 
prophesy the permanence of any man's fame; still, 
from at least one point of view, it can be asserted 
without hesitation that Meredith's name must be re- 
membered as long as English literature shall endure. 
Unlike most other writers whose real influence has 
been felt only by some subsequent generation, Mere- 
dith has permeated the work of his contemporaries. 
By this is meant that he has awakened such general 
respect as to make him acceptable without envy to 
the other novelists of at least his later years. They 
acknowledge his superiority, they look upon him as 
unapproachable, they call him Master. In evidence 
of this, one may note the fact that in present dis- 
cussions of novels the critic nearly always refers to 
George Meredith as a standard of measurement. 
Nor, indeed, is that the only use to which the 
great writer and his novels are put. It is, of course, 
to be expected that Meredith's name would be 
mentioned by Hall Caine in an article on "New 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 183 

Watchwords in Fiction," and by Herbert Paul 
in his ''Apotheosis of the Novel under Queen Vic- 
toria"; but one is a bit startled at finding a quota- 
tion from "Diana of the Crossways" in an account of 
''The Development of Decorative Electricity" and at 
discovering a reference to its author in a discussion 
of "The Humor of the Colored Supplement." And 
allusions to Meredith abound elsewhere than upon 
the pages of j>eriodical publications. Thomas 
Humphry Ward's "Reign of Queen Victoria" and 
Justin McCarthy's "History of Our Own Times" 
each of course gives a note of considerable length 
upon Meredith; Robert Louis Stevenson's letters, 
Oscar Wilde's essays, Algernon Charles Swinburne's 
critical articles, and William Sharpe's biographies 
of Rossetti and of Browning make frequent mention 
of the man and his work; a rather unusual num- 
ber of books have been dedicated to him by novelists, 
critics, and poets; and finally, to mention only ex- 
tremes, such writers as Richard Le Gallienne, the 
latest of the aesthetes worth reckoning with, and 
May Sinclair, the latest of the realists exhibiting 
true promise, refer in their novels to the works of 
George Meredith in the calm tone with which one 
mentions the assured permanence of the writings 
of Moliere and Goethe. Thus it is plainly per- 
ceivable that the literature of the present day is 
embroidered — if the figure will be allowed — thickly 
embroidered, indeed, with the name of Meredith, 
with the titles of his novels, and even with extended 
quotations from what he has written. 

But a still closer inspection of recent literature 



184 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

makes it clear that Meredith is woven into the very 
texture of the fabric as well as embroidered upon it. 
Towards the close of the nineteenth century, Mr. T. 
H. S. Escott, in his "Personal Forces of the Period," 
asserted that the late James Payn "who, as publish- 
er's reader, saw more of manuscript novels than most 
people, declared that with the acceptance of Mere- 
dith as a favorite, there appeared a distinct improve- 
ment in the literary workmanship of the documents 
with which he had to deal." Ten years later in 
corroboration of this statement, Mrs. Craigie did 
not hesitate to say that all the most worthy of living 
English novelists, with the exception of Thomas 
Rardy, were distinguished disciples of George Mere- 
dith. The remark was a trifle sweeping, perhaps; 
yet it is indisputable that Meredith's influence has 
been strongly and widely felt. Mr. Escott finds its 
leavening effect in the Australian stories of Mrs. 
Patchett Martin and of Mrs. Campbell Praed, in the 
critical work of Mr. Edmund Gosse and of Mr. 
H. D. Traill, and in both the prose and the verse of 
William Ernest Henley. Others have gone so far as 
to assert that nearly every recent story of adventure, 
whether it be Stevenson's "Kidnapped," or Hope's 
" Prisoner of Zenda," or Hewlett's " Forest Lovers," 
can be traced more or less directly to " The Adventures 
of Harry Richmond"; while with as little discrimina- 
tion the poems of James Thomson, the novels of 
Robert Hichens, and the plays of Bernard Shaw 
in their expression, their psychology, or their wit 
are often assumed to be the aftermath of Mere- 
dith's first reaping. Such hypotheses break down 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 185 

by their own weight; still, although at the risk of 
writing oneself among the makers of them, one feels 
tolerably safe in holding that many of the aphor- 
istic utterances of Oscar Wilde would have remained 
unsaid, and more than one page in the work of 
George du Maurier and of Sarah Grand would never 
have reached the reader, had it not been for the 
novels of George Meredith. The school life de- 
picted in " Peter Ibbetson " and in "The Martian," 
the beautiful Duchess of Towers, and the unfortu- 
nate Trilby O'Farrell are obviously the result of a 
close reading of Meredith's novels; and a mere 
mention of ''The Heavenly Twins" or of "The Beth 
Book" should be a sufficient answer to the critic 
who regrets that literature does not possess any 
such adequate study of awakening womanhood as is 
found of adolescent boyhood in "The Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel." 

Open to dispute as some of these specific claims 
may be, there can be but little doubt that Meredith 
has had a striking influence upon a considerable 
number of recent writers. As an example of the 
dominance which a great author sometimes exerts 
over a devoted disciple, one of the earlier works of 
Charles Marriott may be taken and subjected to close 
scrutiny. The table of contents of the novel en- 
titled "The Column," in which Chapter XXVII is 
called "The Development of the Emotional Idea," 
and Chapter XXVIII "The Great Sweet Mother," 
shows a reader immediately, that he is in company 
with a scholar of the Meredith school. If, however, 
he is kindly disposed at the outset to give Mr. Mar- 



186 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

riott the benefit of the doubt, he will find that his first 
impressions are strengthened rather than weakened 
when, as he turns to the story, he meets with such 
characters as Caspar Gillies, and Johnnie Bargister, 
and Daphne Hastings. If he does not see in the 
cynicism of the first, an after study of Adrian Harley; 
in the boyishness of the second, an attempted com- 
posite portrait of Richard Feverel and Cross jay Pat- 
terne; and in the mingled simplicity and statelincss 
of the last, a curious mosaic of Sandra Belloni, Clara 
Middleton, Aminta Farrell, and Carinthia Kirby, he 
must be wholly without a knowledge of Meredith's 
best works. Nor does the discipleship end here. 
Edward Hastings, who is *'now and again letting 
fall some concentrated paradox on the training of 
the young," holds somewhat the same attitude 
towards the world in general and towards his daugh- 
ter in particular, as was characteristic of Sir Austin 
in his relation to society and to his son Richard. 
Gertrude Laffey, also, in her philanthropic enter- 
prises may seem not unlike Lady Judith Felle; but 
her real prototype is Mrs. Mount, for her tempta- 
tion of Basil Waring is too much like one of the chap- 
ters in "The Ordeal of Richard Feverel" to leave a 
reader very long in doubt of the connection. Finally, 
so far as minor characters are concerned, Michael 
Trigg, whom the village of Tregotha looked upon as 
Daphne's watchdog, recalls Ripton Thompson in 
his devotion to Lucy Feverel; and clearly Basil 
Waring is Wilfred Pole transferred to a new field, 
but still endowed with all his old time sentimen- 
tality, insincerity, and divided admiration. 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 187 

Again in matters of situation and style, "The 
Column " plainly betrays the influence under which 
it was written. Caspar Gillies's band is no doubt 
Victor Radnor's orchestra borrowed from "One 
of Our Conquerors"; and Daphne's rending of the 
strings of her viola forcibly reminds one of old Bel- 
loni's breaking of the neck of his violin. Then, to 
go back in the plot, the betrothal in the shadow of 
the Grecian pillar, carries one first to the meeting at 
Wilming Weir and afterwards, although somewhat 
less surely, to Richard and Lucy in the woods near 
Raynham. Moreover, the conversation between 
Daphne and Basil about the name to be given their 
child, is strongly reminiscent of a similar passage in 
"The Amazing Marriage," as also are the changes in 
Daphne, when she becomes almost passionate in her 
motherhood, but at the same time loses the love 
which she once bore her boy's father. 

These many scenes, furthermore, are presented in 
language which could only have been studied in 
Meredith's books. This is evident, not simply in that 
Mr. Marriott wrote — to choose at random — "The 
widening of the doors of her discretion was admirably 
gradual," but in that a comparison may frequently 
be set up between the two authors as when, for in- 
stance, one reads in "The Column," "The clamour 
of the sea-birds dropped to a gobbling murmur so 
absurdly suggestive of dinner conversation that the 
girl laughed aloud" and is immediately led to re- 
member that Meredith wrote in "The Egoist" many 
years ago, "The downpour pressed down on the land 
with a great roar of eager gobbling, much like that 



188 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

of the swine's trough fresh filled." It may also be 
pointed out in passing that Mr. Marriott twice em- 
ploys a device used by Meredith in the forty-third 
chapter of *'Rhoda Fleming" to make the reader 
cognizant of the fact, that beneath a conversation 
of no great depth, a real conflict of souls is going 
on. Both Richard Le Gallienne and Paul Elmer 
More have quoted the passage from Meredith for 
entirely different reasons, although they unite in 
praising it for its high realism; but Mr. Marriott's 
unquestioning adoption of his master's method shows 
him to be a disciple indeed. 

Without seeking to inquire whether Mr. H. G. 
Wells does actually show the influence of Meredith 
in the opening chapters of "Love and Mr. Lewis- 
ham," or whether the sources of "The Beloved Vaga- 
bond," by W. G. Locke, may really be sought 
in "The Adventures of Harry Richmond"; without 
undertaking to do more than notice the statement of 
Mr. W. R. Nicoll that both George Gissing and 
Thomas Hardy openly admitted that but for the en- 
couragement which they received from Mr. Mere- 
dith as publisher's reader, they would never have 
devoted themselves to writing, one may feel safe in 
assuming that the thoroughness with which Mere- 
dith and his work are embedded in present-day 
literature, will prevent his being ignored by any 
future student, however distant the point of view, 
or however cursory the glance. Such immortality 
is, in the literary world, but little different from 
that in the spiritual world, as suggested by George 
Eliot in the poem, "O, may I join the Choir 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 189 

Invisible!" The woman's teaching is, that having 
lived, we continue to exist until the end of time, by 
virtue of the influence which we exert over those 
whom we meet, and which they extend to those who 
follow them. Unsatisfactory as such immortality 
seems to the many, it is none the less based upon an 
assured scientific fact, and is, therefore, indisputably 
certain. Admitting then, for the moment, all that 
the most adverse critics have said against Meredith, 
that his style is insufferably bad, that his method 
could not be conceivably worse, that his characters 
are wholly impossible, and that his mission is fool- 
ishly vain, no one, whether admirer or not, can deny 
that he is assured of a position neither insignificant 
nor inconspicuous. 

But to not a few of his readers, Meredith seems de- 
serving of much more than that kind of immortality 
which rests upon the mention of his name by other 
authors and upon the formative influence obviously 
exerted by his writings. The knowledge of what 
must be is greatened in the minds of many by faith 
in what will be: and when that faith is put to trial, 
they are far from feeling that it is without a sub- 
stantial basis in reason. Still, if such have learned 
anything from their reading of the man whom they 
delight to honor, they hesitate to name his absolute 
place. Whatever the impulse of the heart, they 
know that it should be tempered by the working 
of the brain; and they therefore do not undertake 
to assert more than that Meredith must be regarded 
as no unworthy companion of the greatest English 
novelists. If the sneer of the critic accuses them of 



190 THE NOVELS OF GEORGE MEREDITH 

having but faint confidence in their behef, they are 
not betrayed into fruitless wranghng or loud de- 
fence. Serenely unmoved, they let Meredith speak 
for himself. Surely no just man can find fault 
with the intermingHng of honest pride and sin- 
cere humility behind that sonnet, to which Mere- 
dith, writing in his middle age, gave the name of 
"Internal Harmony." 

"Assured of worthiness we do not dread 
Competitors; we rather give them hail 
And greeting in the lists where we may fail: 
Must, if we bear an aim beyond the head! 
My betters are my masters: purely fed 
By their sustainment I likewise shall scale 
Some rocky steps between the mount and vale; 
Meanwhile the mark I have and I will wed. 
So that I draw the breath of finer air, 
Station is naught, nor footways laurel-strewn, 
Nor rivals tightly belted for the race. 
Good speed to them! My place is here or there; 
My pride is that among them I have place: 
And thus I keep this instrument in tune." 

Truly such calm self-analysis explains the re- 
markable patience with which Meredith awaits the 
decision of the wise years. If in the words of 
Lowell, 

"Some innate weakness there must be 
In him who condescends to victory 
Such as the present gives and cannot wait 
Safe in himself as in a fate, " 

Meredith through the absence of such weakness, 
shows himself endowed with noble strength and 



THE MASTER-WORKMAN 191 

manly power. A prophet, it has been said, is not 
without honor save in his own country; and with 
equal truth, it might have been added, save in his 
own time. It is the privilege of Meredith^s friends, 
therefore, to keep silence; for looking back from the 
present through the long period of his activity, and 
realizing once more the calm confidence which en- 
abled him to go on with his work in the face of 
indifference, opposition and contempt, we well 
may say: 

"He knew to bide his time 
And can his fame abide." 



A LIST 
OF THE CHARACTERS IN 
GEORGE MEREDITH'S NOVELS 
WITH AN ENUMERATION OF 
THE CHAPTERS IN WHICH 
THEY APPEAR 



French, German, Spanish, and Italian names beginning 
with particles of relationship are entered under the letter 
with which the chief member of the compound begins, thus: 

D'AUFFRAY, AGNES, follows ATTENBURY, LADY 

DE COL, MARQUIS, follows COGGLESBY, TOM 

VON CREFELDT, BARONESS, follows CREEDMORE, LORD 



194 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



ABARAK— Shaving of Shagpat: 

XII, XVI-XX, XXIII, XXIV. 

ABNER— Rhoda Fleming: xlii. 

ABNER, ARTHUR— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: ii-iv, xi, 

XVI, XX VI. 

ABNETT, JOSHUA— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: xxi. 

ABRANE, CAPTAIN— Amazing 
Marriage: vii-xii, xv-xvii, xx, 
xxiii, xxvr, xxviii, xxxiv, 

XXXV, XXXVIII-XLI, XLV. 

ABRANE, RUFUS — Amazing 

Marriage: ii, iii. 
ABT, HEINRICH— Farina: i. 
ADDERWOOD. LORD — Lord 

Ormont and His Aminta: in, vi, 

VIII, XI-XIII, XV, XXI, XXIII, XXV, 
XXIX. 

ADDICOTE, GILBERT — Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta: xiii. 

ADELINE — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: vii. 

AENNCHEN — Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xv, xxiv, 

XXV, XX VII, XXXI, XXXIII, XXXV, 
XLVIII. 

AENNCHEN— Vit to ria: xiii, 

XXVII, XXXIX, XLII, XLIV. 

AEPFELMANN, HANS— Farina: 

AKLIS — Shaving of Shagpat: xiv. 

AKLIS, SONS OF— Shaving of 

Shagpat: v, vi, xiv, xvii, xx, 

XXIV. 

AKLIS, BRIDES OF— Shaving of 
Shagpat: xiii, xiv, xx. 

ALFRED, LORD— Beauchamp's 
Career: xlii. 

ALMERYLE— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: II. 

ALONZO— see CAMWELL, AU- 
GUSTUS. 



ALPHONSE— Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: iv, xxiii-xxv, 

XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIV, Llll. 

ALTKNOPFCHEN, DAME— 
Farina: ii. 

ALTON, LORD— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxxix, xl, l. 

ALVAN, SIGISMUND — Tragic 
Comedians: Introduction, i-xix. 

AMALIA, DUCHESS— Vittoria: 

XI-XIV, XIX, XX, XXVII, XXVIII, 
XXX, XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXIX, XL, 
XLII, XLIV, XLV. 

AMELIA— Egoist: xiv. 

AMMIANI, COUNT CARLO— 
Vittoria: i-viii, x, xii-xxv, 

XXVII -XL VI. 

AMMIANI, CARLO MERTHYR 

— Vittoria: Epilogue. 

AMMIANI, COUNTESS MAR- 
CELLINA — Vittoria: xvi,xvin, 

XIX, XXI, XXIII, XXIV, XXVII, 
XXX, XXXI, XXXIII -XXXIX, XLI- 
XLIII. 

AMMIANI, GENERAL PAOLO 
— Vittoria: xiv-xvi, xxx, xxxi, 

XLIII. 

ANDREAS— Vittoria: xxvii. 

D'ANDREUZE, COUNTESS 
JULIA — Amazing Marriage: ii. 

ANDREWS, ELIZABETH— see 
BERRY, ELIZABETH. 

ANNA, AUNT— Rhoda Fleming: 

XVII-XX, XXIII, XLIV. 

ANTON — Amazing Marriage: v- 

VII. 

D'ARCI— Vittoria: xxxi. 
AREEP— Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXII. 

ARLINGTON— One of Our Con- 
querors: IX, XXV. XXXVI, XXXIX. 



196 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



ARMETT, MISS— Adventures of 

Harry Richmond: xxxix. 
ARMSTRONG, ROBERT — see 

ECCLES, ROBERT. 
ARNOLDO— Vittoria: xxi. 
ARONLEY, LORD— see ROM- 

FREY, EVERARD, and ROM- 

FREY, CRAVEN. 
ARPINGTON, LADY— Amazing 

Marriage: ii, xii, xx-xxviii, 

XXXVI, XXXVII, XL, XLI, XLV- 
XLVII. 

ASHWORTH — Adventures of 

Harry Richmond: vi. 
D'ASOLA, VIOLETTA — see 

D'ISORELLA, COUNTESS. 

ASPER. CONSTANCE— Diana of 
the Crossways: xv-xvii, xix, 

XXI-XXIII, XXVI, XXVII, xxix, 
XXXV-XXXVII, XXXIX. 

ASRAC, EBN— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: II. 
ASSUNT A— Vittoria: xxviii. 



ASWARAK, VIZIER— Shaving 
of Shagpat: ii. 

ATTENBURY, LADY— Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel: iv. 

D'AUFFRAY, AGNES — Beau- 
champ's Career: xxiii-xxv, xl, 

XLII, XLIII. 

D'AUFFRAY, M.— Beauchamp's 
Career: xxiii, xxiv, 

AUSTIN, SEYMOUR — Beau- 
champ's Career: xvi-xxii, xxvi, 

XXVIII, XXXII, XXXVII, xxxix, 
XLV-XLVIII, LIV. 

AVERST, EDITH— One of Our 
Conquerors: xxvi, xxxv. 

AVERST, SIR JOHN— One of 

Our Conquerors: xxvi. 
AVONLEY, LORD— see ROM- 

FREY, CRAVEN. 
AZAWOOL— Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXI-XXIII. 

AZROOKA— Shaving of Shagpat: 



B 



BAERENS, GOTTFRIED— Case 
of General Ople and Lady 
Camper: i, vi, viii. 

BAERENS, MRS.— Case of Gen- 
eral Ople and Lady Camper: i, 

VI, VIII. 

BAGARAG, SHIBLI— Shaving of 
Shagpat: i, iii, v-xxi, xxiii, 

XXIV. 

BAGENHOPE — Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: liii. 

BAIRAM, DR. BENJAMIN— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: xviii, 

XXV, XLV. 

BAKER — Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: in. 
BAKEWELL, MRS.— Ordeal of 

Richard Feverel: vi, xi, xxv, 

XXVI. 

BAKEWELL, TOM— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: iii-xiii, xx- 

XXVI, XXVIII-XXXI, xxxiv, 
XXXVII-XXXIX, XLIII, XLIV. 

BALDERINI, AGOSTINO— Vit- 
toria: I-VIII, X, XII, XV, XVI, 
XVIII-XXI, XXXI, XXXV, XXXIX, 
XLII-XLVI. 

BANDELMEYER, GREGORIUS 
-Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: XXXII. 



BANDINELLI, GIULIO — Vit- 
toria: I-V, XXXVI, XL-XLIV. 

BANNERBRIDGE, CHARLES 
ADOLPHUS — Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: ii-iv, xix, xl, 

LI, LII. 

BANNERBRIDGE, MISS— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: ii, 

IX, XLIV. 

BANNISTER, MRS.— One of Our 
Conquerors: xxiii. 

BANTAM, THE— see JINKSON, 
GILES. 

BARBARA, LADY — Beau- 
champ's Career: xlii. 

BARCLAY— Egoist: xix, xxv, 

XXVII, XXIX. 

BARCLAY, COLONEL— Rhoda 

Fleming: xxi, xxii. 
BARCOP, MRS.— Case of General 

Ople and Lady Camper: ii, iv, 

VI, VII. 

BARENLIEB— Farina: xiii. 

BARLEY, SUSAN— see DEW- 
LAP, DUCHESS OF. 

BARMBY, REVEREND SEPTI- 
MUS — One of Our Conquerors: 

IV, VIII, IX, XI, XIV-XVIII, XXI, 
XXII, XXIV, xxv, XXVII-XXXIII, 
XXXVI-XXXIX, XLI, XLII. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



197 



BARNES— Diana of the Cross- 
ways: XLIII. 

BARNES, MR.— Evan Harring- 
ton: I, II, VII. 

BARNSHED — Adventures of 

Harry Richmond: vi. 
BARRETT, LADY— Sandra Bel- 

loni: X, lv. 
BARRETT, SIR JUSTINIAN— 

Sandra Belloni: x, lv. 
BARRETT, PERCIVAL— Sandra 

Belloni: lv. 
BARRETT, PURCELL— Sandra 

Belloni: vii-x, xiv-xvii, xix, 

XXI-XXIII, XXIX, XXXI, xxxiii, 

XXXIV, XXXVII-XL, XLIII, LV- 

LVII. 

BARRINGTON, LADY— Evan 
Harrington: i. 

BARRINGTON, MRS. — Evan 
Harrington: xxii. 

BARTHOLOMEW, PETER— 
Sandra Belloni: xi. 

BARTLETT — Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: xliii. 

BARTLETT — Diana of the Cross- 
ways: XII, XL. 

BARTLETT— Egoist: xvii. 

BASKELETT, CAPTAIN CECIL 
— Beauchamp's Career: ii, xi, 

XIV, XIX-XXII, XXVI, xxviii- 
XXXII, XXXIV, XXXVI, xxxix, 
XL-XLV, XLVIII, LII, LV. 

BASKELETT, SIR JOHN AND 
LADY — Beauchamp's Career: 

XXXIII. 

BATTISTA— Vittoria: x. 
BAYNES — Sandra Belloni: 

XXXIV, XXXVII. 

BAYRUFFLE, HONORABLE 
MRS. — Sandra Belloni: xxxiv, 

XXXVII, LVII. 

BEAMISH, BEAU — Tale of 

Chloe: i-viii, x. 
BEAN, DR.— Rhoda Fleming: 

XIX. 

BEATRICE— Lord Ormont and 

His Aminta: iii. 
BEAUCHAMP, ELIZABETH 

MARY — Beauchamp's Career: 

II, III, XVI, XXVI, XXVIII, XXXII, 
XXXVII, XXXIX. 

BEAUCHAMP, LADY EMILY— 
Beauchamp's Career: ii. 

BEAUCHAMP, NEVIL— Beau- 
champ's Career: i-lvi. 



BEAUCHAMP.COLONEL RICH- 
ARD — Beauchamp's Career: ii, 

XXVI, XLIX. 

BEAUCHAMP, ROSAMOND— 
see CULLING, ROSAMOND. 

BEAUMARIS. LORD— Adven- 
tures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIX. 

BEAZLEY, MR.— Ordeal of Rich- 
ard Feverel: xvi, xxvi. 

BEL, AUNT— see CURRENT, 
ISABELLE. 

BELFIELD, DUKE OF— Evan 
Harrington: xiv, xvi, xviii, xix, 

XXI, XXII, XXIV, xxix-xxxiii, 
XXXVII, XXXIX, XLI. 

BELLONI, EMILIA ALESSAN- 
DRA, also known as VITTOR- 
IA CAMP A— Sandra Belloni: 
i-xv, xvii-Lix. Vittoria: ii- 
XLiv, Epilogue. 

BELLONI, GUISEPPE— Sandra 
Belloni: v, vi, xxv, xxvi, xxx, 

XXXII, XXXIV, XXXIX, XL, 
XLVIII, L, LII, LIV. 

BELLONI, MRS.— Sandra Bel- 
loni: VI, XXXIX, XLVII-L, LII, 

Lix. Vittoria: v, viii, xi, xiii, 

XIV, XX, XXVII, XXXV. 

BELMARANA, COUNT — Evan 

Harrington: iii, ix. 

BELTHAM, DOROTHY — Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

I, III, IV, VII-XI, XIV, xviii-xx, 

XXII, XXXVI -XXXVIII, XL, XLIIX, 
XLIV, XLVII, XLVIII, L-LVI. 

BELTHAM, SQUIRE HARRY 
LEPEL — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: i-iv, vi-ix, xi, xii, 

XIV, XVIII-XX, XXII, xxv, XXVII, 
xxx, XXXVI-XLI, XLIII, XLIV, 
XLVI-LIII, LVI. 

BELTHAM, MRS.— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: ix, xxiii, 

XLI. 

BELTUS, LADY— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xxiii. 

BENCH, WALTER— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: xii. 

BENJAMIN— One of Our Con- 
querors: IV. 

BENLEW, ROBERT I— Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta: xxii. 

BENLEW, ROBERT II— Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta: xxii, 
XXVI, xxx. 



198 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



BENLEW. ELIZABETH EG- 

LETT — Lord Ormont and His 

Aminta: xxii. 
BENLOMIK— Vittoria: x. 
BENNETT, BURLEY — Evan 

Harrington: xxii. 
BENSON— Ordeal of Richard 

Feverel: iv, v, vii, x, xiii, xx- 

XXIV, XXXI, xxxiii, xxxiv, 
XLIV. 

BEPPO — Sandra Belloni: lix. 
Vittoria: iii-vi, xi-xv, xxvi- 

XX VIII, XXXI, XXXII, XXXV, 
XXXVII-XXXIX, XLII, XLIV-XLVI. 

BERNARDUS, FATHER— Vit- 
toria: XXVII, XXVIII. 

BERRY, ELIZABETH — Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel: I, xxvi, 
xxviii-xxxii, xxxiv, xxxvii- 

XLI, XLIII-XLV. 

BERRY, MARTIN— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xxi, xxii, 

XXV, XXVI, XXVIII, XXX, xxxvii, 
XXXIX-XLI, XLIII, XLIV. 

BERTHA OF BOHMEN— Far- 
ina: VI. 

BHANAVAR THE BEAUTIFUL 
— Shaving of Shagpat: i, ii, x. 

BIGGOT, TOM — Beauchamp's 
Career: iv. 

BIGNET, MADAME BLANCHE 
— Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: XXXII. 

BILLET, SIMON— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XX. 
BILLING — Rhoda Fleming: xviii, 

XXIV. 

BILLING, MRS.— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XXIV. 

BILTON, STEPHEN — Rhoda 
Fleming: xvii-xxi. 

BLACHINGTON, ADOLPHUS— 
One of Our Conquerors: xvii. 

BLACHINGTON, LADY ROD- 
WELL — One of Our Conquer- 
ors: XVII, XX-XXII, XXIV, xxvii, 

xxxvi. 
BLACHINGTON, SIR ROD- 
WELL — One of Our Conquer- 
ors: XIV, XX-XXII, XXIV, xxvii, 

BLAIZE. GILES — Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: n-xi, xv, xxii, 
XXIII, XXVI, xxviii-xxx, xxxiv, 

XLI, XLIII, XLV. 

BLAIZE, TOM— Ordeal of Rich- 
ard Feverel: i, ix, xx, xxii- 

XXVI, XXVIII, XXXIV. 



BLANCOVE, ALGERNON— 
Rhoda Fleming: i, v-ix, xii, 
xiv-xviii, xx-xxxiv, xxxvii, 

XXXVIII, XLII-XLV, XLVII, XLVIII. 

BLANCOVE, EDWARD— Rhoda 
Fleming: i, v-xii, xvi, xviii, xx- 

XXIX, XXXI-XXXVIII, XLI, XLIII- 
XLVIII. 

BLANCOVE, SQUIRE— Rhoda 
Fleming: i, vi, viii, xv, xviii, 

XXVI, XXXII, XXXVIII, XLI. 

BLANCOVE, SIR WILLIAM— 

Rhoda Fleming: vi, viii, xi, xii, 

XVI, XXI, XXII, XXV, XXVI, 
XXXI-XXXIV, XXXVI, XXX\1I, 
XLII, XLVIII. 

BLANDISH, LADY EMMELINE 
— Ordeal of Richard Feverei: i, 

IV, XI-XVI, XX, XXII-XXV, XXVIII, 

XXX, xxxiii-xxxvm, xl, xli, 

XLIV, XLV. 

BLASS-GESELL— Farina: xi, xii. 

BLATHENOY. JACOB— One of 

Our Conquerors: ix, xiu, xx- 

XXII, XXIV, XXV, XXX, XXXI. 

BLATHENOY, MRS.— One of 
Our Conquerors: xvii. xx-xxii, 

XXIV, XXV, xxix-xxxii. 
BOB — Evan Harrington: xiii. 
BOBINIKENE, M.— One of Our 

Conquerors: xix, xli. 

BODDY— Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: xlviii, liv, 

BOLLOP— Ordeal of Richard Fev- 
erel: III. 

BOLTON, LADY BETTY— see 
EDBURY, MARQUISE OF. 

BOLTON, MRS.— see SWEET- 
WINTER, MABEL. 

BONNER, JULIANA — Evan 
Harrington: xiv-xix, xxi, xxiii- 

XXV, XXVII, XXIX-XXXII, XXXV- 
XLIII, XLV. 

BONNER, MR.— Evan Harring- 
ton: XXVII, XXXI. 

BONNER, MRS.— Evan Har- 
rington: IX, XIV-XVII, XIX, XXV, 

XXVII, XXIX, XXXII-XXXIV, 
XXXVII-XL, XLIII. 

BOOLP — Shaving of Shagpat: ii. 

BOON, JONATHAN— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: xix. 

BOOTLBAC— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: XXI-XXIV. 

BOROLICK, A L G Y — Beau- 
champ's Career: xx, xxi 

BOULBY, DICK— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XVIII. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



199 



BOULBY, HARRY — Rhoda 
Fleming: xviii, xix, xlvi. 

BOULBY, MRS.— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XVIII-XXI, XXIII, XLIV, 
XLVI. 

BOUTHOIN, DR.— One of Our 
Conquerors: xix, xxi, xxiv, 

XXVIII, XXXVI. 

BOYLE & LUCKWORT, CHEM- 
ISTS — One of Our Conquerors: 

XIII, XVIII. 

BOYNE, MR.— Rhoda Fleming: 

III, VI. 

BRADDOCK, THORPE & SIM- 
NEL, SOLICITORS— Diana of 
the Crossways: xiii, xiv, xvii, 

XXIII, XXIX, XXXVII. 

BRAILSTONE, LORD— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: iii, xv-xvii, xxiii, 

XXIV, XXVIII, XXXIV, xxxix, 
XLI, XLIII-XLVII, 

BRAINTOP — Sandra Belloni: 

XXIV-XXVI, XXIX, XXXI-XXXV, 
XXXVII, XXXVIII, LIII, LIV, LIX. 

BRANCIANI, COUNT— Sandra 
Belloni: l-lii; Vittoria: xxvi. 

BRANCIANI, COUNTESS— San- 
dra Belloni: l-lii. 

BRANKSBURNE, MARY— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: xxxii. 

BRAWNLEY, MR.— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: vi. 

BRAYDER, HONORABLE PE- 
TER— Ordeal of Richard Fev- 
erel: XXXIV-XXXVI, XXXIX, 

XLIII. 

BREEKS, MRS.— Sandra Belloni: 

VIII, XI. 

BRIDES OF AKLIS— see AKLIS, 
BRIDES OF. 

BRIDGENORTH— Diana of the 
Crossways: xxvi. 

BRIDGES, MRS.— Diana of the 
Crossways: xii. 

BRISBY— Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: xlii. 

BRISBY— Diana of the Cross- 
ways: VIII, XI. 

BRISK, REVEREND — Beau- 
champ's Career: xvii. 

BROADMEAD, FARMER — 
Evan Harrington: xi-xiii, xvn. 



BRONCINI. COUNT— Vittoria: 

IX, XXVI. 

BROWNSON, JOHNNY— Beau- 
champ's Career: xix. 

BROWNY-see FARREL, AMIN- 
TA. 

BRUNHILD— Farina: ii. 

BULSTED, GREGORY— Adven- 
tures of Harry Richmond: ix, x, 
XIX, XXXVI -xxxviii. 

BULSTED, CAPTAIN WILLIAM 
— Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: IX, X, XV, XVIII-XX, 
XXXVII-XLI, XLIII, XLVI, XLIX, 
LIII, LV, LVI. 

BULSTED, MRS. WILLIAM— 
see RIPPENGER, JULIA. 

BURDOCK, WILL— Sandra Bel- 
loni: XI, 

BURGIN, MR.— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxiii, xxxvii, 

LIII. 

BURLEY — Evan Harrington: 

XVIII, XXI. 

BURNLEY, LORD ALFRED— 
Beauchamp's Career: xxvi, 

XLII. 

BURT, MR.— Rhoda Fleming: 

III, VI. 

BURT, MARY— Rhoda Fleming: 
I. 

BUSBY, LORD— Diana of the 
Crossways: xxx. 

BUSBY, ROBERT— Diana of the 
Crossways: xxx. 

BUSRAC, EBN — Shaving of 
Shagpat: iv. 

BUSSHE, LADY— Egoist: ii-v, 

XVII, XXV, XXIX, XXXI V-XXX VII. 
XLI, XLIII-L. 

BUSSHE, LORD JOHN— Egoist: 

XVII. 

BUTTERMORE, REVEREND 
GROSEMAN— One of Our Con- 
querors: \1l, XIII, XIV, XXIX, 
XXXI, XXXVI, XXXIX, XL. 

BUXLEY, EDWARD— Sandra 
Belloni: i, ii, xv-xvii, xxvii, 

XXIX, XXXI, XLII. 

BUXTON, DR.— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xiv. 

BYSTOP— Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: vi. 



200 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



CADDIS, MR.— One of Our Con- 
querors: XX, XXI, XXXVI. 

CADWALLADER — Amazing 
Marriage: xxxiv. 

CALLET, MADAME ARMAN- 
DINE— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: III, VIII, IX, XIII, XIV, XXI, 
XXII, XXXVI, XXXIX. 

CALLIANI, GIULIO— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: xii, xxx. 

CAMERON, MRS.— Sandra Bel- 
loni: L. 

CAMILLA — Vittoria: xvii, xix- 

XXI, XXII, XXV, XXXI, XXXII, XL. 

CAMP A, VITTORIA— see BEL- 

LONI. EMILIA? ALESSAN- 

DRA. 
CAMPER. LADY ANGELA— 

Case of General Ople and Lady 

Camper: i-viii. 
CAMPER, SIR SCROPE— Case 

of General Ople and Lady 

Camper: i, ii. 
CAMWELL, AUGUSTUS— Tale 

of Chloe: ii, iv, v-viii, x. 
CANTOR, LADY— One of Our 

Conquerors: xx\t[. 
CAPES, MR.— Egoist: xxxv. 
CAPES, SIR JOHN — Rhoda 

Fleming: xvi, xxi, xxii, xxiv. 
CAPPERSTON, SIR WALTER 

— Diana of the Crossways: xiv. 
CARDI, PIETRO— Vittoria: xv, 

XXIX. 

CAREY, LORD AND LADY— 

Rhoda Fleming: xxii. 
CARIGNY— Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: xxxii, xliv. 
CARLING, MR.— One of Our 

Conquerors: iv, vi, vii, xii, xiii, 

XIX, XXI, XXII, xxx, xxxi, 

XXXVI, XXXIX, XLII. 

CARLING, MRS.— One of Our 
Conquerors: vii. 

CARLO ALBERTO — see 
CHARLES ALBERT. 

CARMINE, LADY— One of Our 
Conquerors: xx, xxi. 

CARNISCHI— Vittoria: xxxi. 

CARPENDIKE, MR. — Beau- 
champ's Career: xix, xx. 

CARR, LORD ALONZO— Adven- 
tures of Harry Richmond: xlvii. 



CARRINGTON. LOUISA— Evan 
Harrington: xiv, xix-xxi, xxiv, 
xxvii, xxx-xxxii, xxxvi, 

XXXVII, XLI. 

CARSTAIRS— Lord Ormont and 
His Aminta: xxiii, xxix. 

CARTHEW, MRS. — Amazing 
Marriage: xiii, xiv, xx. 

CASELDY, SIR MARTIN— Tale 
of Chloe: ii-x. 

CATHAIRN, LADY— Diana of 
the Crossways: xx. 

CATKIN— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: IV, XIV, XV, XVIII, XX, xxii, 
XXV, XXXIII, XXXVI, XL. 

CATMAN— Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: v, vi. 
CAUSITT, DR. PETER— Lord 

Ormont and His Aminta: xvi. 
CAVELY, MARTHA— House on 

the Beach: i-xii. 
CAWTHORNE, DR.— Amazing 

Marriage: ii, iii. 
CHARLES— Evan Harrington: v. 
CHARLES ALBERT, KING OF 

SARDINIA— Vittoria: i, ii, iv, 

V, VIII, XXX-XXXII, xxxiv- 

XXX VIII, XLI-XLV. 

CHARNER, DANIEL— Amazing 

Marriage: xlv. 
CHASSEDIANE, JENNIE— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLI- 
XLIV. 

CHAUNTER — Adventures of 

Harry Richmond: vi. 
CHECCO— Vittoria: x, xvi. 
CHERSON, MRS. FERDINAND 

— Diana of the Crossways: 

XXVII. 

CHESSINGTON— Egoist: xxxiv. 

CHIALLO, CAPTAIN— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: xii, xxv. 

CHICKLEY, MRS.— Sandra Bel- 
loni: xxv. 

CHIEF, THE— Vittoria: i-vi, viii, 

X-XII, XV-XVIII, XXIV, xxvii, 
xxx, XXXV-XXXVII, XL, XLIII, 
XLIV. 

CHILLINGWORTH, LADY 
CHARLOTTE — Sandra Bel- 
loni: X, xiv, xv, xviii, xix, 

XXIII, XXVI, XXVIII, XXX- 
XXX\^I, XL, XLAT, L, LII-LIV, 
LVI-L\aiI. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



201 



CHIPPS, MR.— Sandra Belloni: 

XXI, XXII. 

CHIUSE, VINCENTINO— Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta: xii. 

CHLOE— see MARTINSWARD 
CATHERINE. 

CHRIMHILD— Farina: ii. 

CHUMP, MARTHA— Sandra Bel- 
loni: IV, V, Vll, XIV-XVII, XIX, 

xxi-xxiii, xx\^I, XXIX, xxxi- 

XXXVII, XLII, LIII-LVI, LIX. 

CHUMP, MR.— Sandra Belloni: 

XV, XVI, XIX,XXIV, XXXII, XXXIII, 
XLII, LIV. 

CLANCONAN, LORD— One of 
Our Conquerors: xxvii, xxix- 

XXXI, XXXV. 

CLEMENCE, MADAME— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: xi. 

CLIFFORD, DR. — Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xii, xx, xxiii- 

XXV. 

CLUNGEON. JIMMY— Tale of 

Chloe: v. 
COGGLESBY. ANDREW— Evan 

Harrington: iii-v, vii-ix, xiv, 

XVIII-XXXI, XXXIII, XXXVII-XLI, 
XLIV, XLVI, XLVII. 

COGGLESBY, MRS. HARRIET 
— Evan Harrington :'iii, v, vii-ix, 

XIII, XIV, XIX, XX, xxv; xxvii, 

XXXVIII, XL, XLI, XLIV, XLVI, 
XLVII. 

COGGLESBY, TOM— Evan Har- 
rington: V, VIII, XI, XII, XVII, 
XVIII, xxv -XXXII, XXXVI, 

XXXVII, XXXIX, XLI, XLIV, XLVI, 
XLVII. 

DE COL, DUCHESSE DA ROS- 
TA — Evan Harrington: xxi. 

DE COL, MARQUISE— Evan 
Harrington: ix. 

COLEWORT— One of Our Con- 
querors: XLI. 

COLLESTON, MARQUIS OF— 
Lord Ormont and His Aminta: 

XVI. 

COLLETT— Lord Ormont and 
His Aminta: i, xviii, xxiv, 

XXVI, XXVIII, XXX. 

COLLETT, SELINA— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: i, vi, x, 

XIV, XVIII, XXI, XXIII-XXVI, 
XXVIII, XXX. 

COLLETT, MRS.— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xxvii, xxviii, 

XXX. 



COLUMELLI — Amazing Mar- 
riage: XXVIII, XXXIX, XLVII. 

COMBLEMAN, ADMIRAL — 
Evan Harrington: i, iii, ix, xiii, 

CONLEY, FARMER— Evan Har- 
rington: XXX. 

CONLEY, MISSES— Evan Har- 
rington: XXX, XXXI. 

CONNING, MARIA— Evan Har- 
rington: XIII, XIV, XIX, XXI, 
XXIX, XXXIII, XXXVII. 

CONST ANTINE, PRINCE — 

Tragic Comedians: i. 
CONRAD, KAISER — Farina: 

XIV. 

COOP, JANE — Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xii. 

COOP, MARTHA MARY— Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta: xii. 

COOP, ROBERT— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xii. 

COPLEYS, THE— Sandra Bel- 
loni: III, XIX, XXI, XXVII. 

COPPING, SQUIRE AND MRS. 
— Evan Harrington: xxii. 

COPPING, TOM— Evan Harring- 
ton: XIII, XX. 

CORBY, SIR MEESON— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: vii-ix, xi, xii, 

XX, XXIII, XXIV, XXXV, XXXIX, 
XLI, XLV, XLVII. 

CORFE, COLONEL— One of Our 
Conquerors: xx, xxi, xxxvi. 

CORMYN, DR. JOHN AND MRS. 
— One of Our Conquerors: iv, 

VIII, IX, XI, XVIII, XX, XXII, 
XXIV, xxv, XXXVI-XXXVIII, XL, 
XLI. 

CORNEY, DR.— Egoist: x, xv, 

XIX, XXVI, XXVII, XXXII, XLII, 
XLIV,-XLVII, L. 

CORTE, UGO— Vittoria: i-v, vil, 

XII, XVIII, XXX, XXXI, XXXI v, 
XXXVI, XL-XLIV, XLVI. 

COUGHAM — Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XVI, XVIII-XX. 

COURTNEY, MISS— Diana of 
the Cross ways: xxviii. 

COWRY, LADY— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XII, XXIII, XXVIII, XLV. 

COXWELL,— Evan Harrington: 

VII, XXVI. 

CRANE, LORD AND LADY— 

Diana of the Cross ways: xiv. 
CREEDMORE, LORD— Diana of 
the Crossways: xv, xix. 



202 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



VON CREFELDT. BARONESS 
LUCIE — Tragic Comedians : 

II, V, VII-XV, XVII, XIX. 

CRESSETT, COUNTESS FAN- 
NY — Amazing Marriage: i-v, 

XII, XIII, XV, XXIII, XXV, XXVI, 
XXIX, XXXV, XXXIX, XLIV. 

CRESSETT, JR.— Amazing Mar- 
riage: IX, XI, XII, XXXV, XXXIX, 
XLI, XLIII, XLVr, XLVII. 

CRESSETT, EARL OF— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: i-iii. 

VON CRESTOW, COUNT AND 
COUNTESS— Tragic Comedi- 
ans: II, V. 

CRICKLEDON— House on the 
Beach: ii-v, vii, xi. 

CRICKLEDON, MRS.— House on 

the Beach: iii-viii, xi. 
DE CROISNEL, COMTE CRES- 

NES — Beauchamp's Career: v- 

IX, XI, XXIII-XXV, XXXIV, 
XXX VII, XLI. 

DE CROISNEL, RENE'E— Beau- 
champ's Career: v-xi, xiii, xix- 

XXVI, XXX, XXXII, XXXIV, 

XXXVII, XXXIX-XLVI, XL.VIII, LI, 
LII, LV. 

DE CROISNEL, CAPTAIN RO- 
LAND — Beauchamp's Career: 

V-X, XXIII-XXVI, XXXIV, XXXVII, 
XXXIX-XLIII, XLV, LV. 

CROOKLYN, PROFESSOR — 
Egoist: XXVII, xxix, xxx- 

XXXVIII, XLI, 

CROOM, JACOB— Egoist: xxvi. 

CROYSTON, LADY— Beau- 
champ's Career: lv. 

CROYSTON, LORD — Beau- 
champ's Career: xxxii, xxxvii, 

LV. 



CRUCHI. J A C O P O— Vittoria: 

XXV, XXVI, XX VIII, XLVI. 

CRUCHI. ROSETTA— Vittoria: 

XXV. 

CRUMMINS, NED— House on 
the Beach: ii. 

CUFF, COLONEL EVANS— 
Beauchamp's Career: xi. 

CULBRETT, STUKELY— Beau- 
champ's Career: i-iii, xi, xiv, 

XVII, XX, XXI, XXVI, XXXIII, 
XXXV-XXX\^II, XLIII, XLIV, XLIX, 
LV. 

CULLING, MR.— Beauchamp's 
Career: i, ii, ix, x, xiv. 

CULLING, ROSAMUND— Beau- 
champ's Career: i-v, viii, ix, 
xi-xiv, x\ai, XXII, XXV, xxvi, 

XXVIII, XXX, XXXIII-XXXVII, 
XXXIX-XLV, XLVIII-LIII, LV, LVI. 

DE CULME, LADY— Lord Or- 

mont and His Aminta: xi-xiii. 
CULMER, LADY— Egoist: ii, v, 

X, XXIX, XXXIV, XXXVI, XXXVII, 
XLIII-XLVI. 

CUMNOCK, CAPTAIN— Lord Or- 

mont and His Aminta: xviii- 

XXI. 

CUPER, MR.— Lord Ormont and 
His Aminta: i, ii, iv, v, ix, xi- 

XIII, XXIV, XXVI. 

CURATE OF LOBOURNE— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: iv, xiii, 

XV. 

CURRENT, ISABELLE— Evan 
Harrington: xvi, xviii, xxii, 

XXIV, XXIX, XXX, XXXIII, 

xxx\ai. 

CURRIE, FRED — Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xxxiv. 

CURTIS, DICK— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XVIII, XXIII. 



D 



DACIER, LADY— Diana of the 
Crossways: xvii, xix, xxvii. 

DACIER, LORD— Diana of the 
Crossways: xix, xx. 

DACIER, PERCY— Diana of the 
Crossways: xiv-xli, xliii. 

DALE. L^TITI A— Egoist: ii-iv, 

VI-XI, XIII-XX, XXII-XXV, XXVII, 
XXIX-XXXIV, XXXVI-L. 

DALE, MR.— Egoist: ii-iv, x, 

XIII-XVI. XXXIII, XXXIX, XL, 
XLII-XLVI, XLVIII, XLIX. 



DANCE, ARTHUR— Diana of 

the Crossways: xi. 
DANDY — Evan Harrington: vii, 

IX, XXVI. 

DANMORE, LADY— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: xxix. 

DANNISBURGH, LORD— Di- 
ana of the Crossways: i, vi, vii, 

XIV, XVI-XXI, XXVI, XXVtl, XXXV, 
XLI. 

DANNY, MR.— One of Our Con- 
querors: XXI. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



203 



DANVERS— Diana of the Cross- 
ways: IX, XI -XIII, XXII, XXIV- 
XXVII, XXIX, XXX, XXXII, XXXVI, 
XXXVIII-XL, XLII, XLIII. 

DARLETON, LUCY— Egoist: 

XXI -XXV, XXVII, XLVII. 

DARLEY, ABSWORTHY AND 

MISSES — Ordeal of Richard 

Feverel: xviii. 
DARLINGTON, GENERAL— 

Egoist: XXIV, xxv. 
DARTFORD, LORD— Sandra 

Belloni: x. 

DE DARTIGUES, COMTE— 

Evan Harrington: v. 
DAUPHIN, THE— Adventures of 

Harry Richmond: xlii. 
DAVENPORT, MOLLIE— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: xx, 

XXII, XXIII, xxv. 
DAVIS — Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: vi. 
DAVIS — Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: ix. 
DAVIS, MOTHER — Amazing 

Marriage: xxv. 
DAVIS — Beauchamp's Career: 

xix, XX. 

DE CRAYE, LIEUTENANT 
HORACE— Egoist: x, xi, xiii, 

XVII-XXVI, XXVIII-XLIV, XLVI- 
XLVIII, L. 

DEHORS, ARMAND— Egoist: x. 

DELZENBURG. COUNT— see 
ERNEST. 

DELZENBURG, COUNTESS OF 
—see OTTILIA, PRINCESS. 

DENEWDNEY, LADY— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xxi, 

XXII. 

DENHAM, HARRY — Beau- 
champ's Career: xxviii, l, liv, 

LVI. 

DENHAM, JENNY — Beau- 

champ's Career: xi, xii, xix, 
XXVII, XXIX, XXX, xxxii, 
XXXIII, XXXV, XXXIX, XLII, XLV, 
XLVIII-LVI. 

DERING, CUTHBERT— Diana 
of the Cross ways: xxiv, xxxviii, 

XLII. 

DERRY, JACK— Diana of the 
Crossways: iii. 

DESBAROLLES, M— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXII. 



DESBOROUGH. COLONEL— 
Ordeal of Richard Feverel: xx, 

XXIII. 

DESBOROUGH, LUCY— Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel: viii, ix, xi, 

XIV, XV, XIX-XXIII, XXV-XXXII, 
XXXIV, XXXV, XXXVII-XLV. 

DESBOROUGH, MRS.— Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel: xxx. 

DESPRES, M.— Ordeal of Rich- 
ard Feverel: xlv. 

DESTRIER, LORD — Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xx, 

XXIII, XXXIX, XL-XLV, XLVII, 
XLIX, LV, LVI. 

DETTERMAIN,— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxiv, xxv, 

XXVII, XXXIX, XLI, XLIV, XLVII. 

DEVEREUX, LOUISE WAR- 
DOUR — Beauchamp's Career: 

XIX-XXII, XXXIII, XXXVII-XXXIX, 
XLII, XLV, XLVIII, XLIX, LI, LII, 
LVI. 

DEVEREUX, WARDOUR— 
Beauchamp's Career: xx, xxi, 

XXXIII, XXXVIII. 

DE WITT, CAPTAIN JORIAN— 
Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: XXI-XXIII, XXXII, XXXIX, 
XLI -XLIV, XL\ai, L-LIII. 

DE WITT, BRAMHAM— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xli, 

XLII, XLVII. 

DEWLAP, DUCHESS OF— Tale 
of Chloe: i-viii, x. 

DEWLAP, DUKE OF— Tale of 
Chloe: i-iii, x. 

DEWSBURY. AN AST ASIA — 
Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: XXIII, XXXIX, LII, LIII. 

DEWSBURY, ELIZABETH— 
Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: XXXIX. 

DIANA OF THE CROSSWAYS— 
see WARWICK, DIANA AN- 
TONIO. 

DICK — Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: iv. 
DICKETT— Beauchamp's Career: 

xxx. 

DISHER, AUGUSTUS— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xlvii. 

DISHER, DOLLY— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: xlvii. 

DISHER, MR.— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xlvii. 



204 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



VON DITTMARSCH, CAPTAIN 
— Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: XLVII, XLVIII. 

VON DITTMARSCH. MRS.— see 

_SIBLEY, LUCY. 
DOB — Shaving of Shagpat: xxi- 

XXIV. 

DOLCHESTER, LADY— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: XLi. 

DOLLIKINS— Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XX, XXI. 

DOLOROSO, DON— Evan Har- 
rington: IV. 

DORIA, MISS— Ordeal of Rich- 
ard Feverel: xxxv. 

DOUBLE, JOSEPH— Adventures } 
of Harry Richmond: xi-xiv. 

DOUBLEDAY— Evan Harring- i 
ton: VII. 

DOVILI, ANGELO — Vittoria: 

XV. 

DREIGHTON, COLONEL SEL- 
WIN — One of Our Conquerors: 

XI. 

DREW — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: v, vi, xiii. 

DREW, JOHN THOMAS— Beau- 
champ's Career: xi. 

DUBBIN — Evan Harrington: xxv, 

DUBBLESON— One of Our Con- 
querors: XLI. 

DUCIE, VIVIAN— Beauchamp's 
Career: xix, xxiv-xxvi. 

DUFFIAN, HONORABLE AND 
REVEREND HERBERT— 
Evan Harrington: xl, xliv, 

XLVI, XLVII. 

DUFFIELD, LORD— Amazing 
Marriage: iii. 



DULAC. LORD AND LADY— 
Diana of the Crossways: xxv. 

DUMP, CHARLES — Amazing 
Marriage: ii, iii. 

DUMP. MARY— Amazing Mar- 
riage: III. 

DUNSTANE, CAPTAIN LUKEN 
— Diana of the Crossways: ii- 

VIII, XII-XIV, XVIII, XIX, XXI, 
XXVI, XXVII, XXXVI, XXXVII, 
XXXIX-XLIII. 

DUNSTANE, LADY EMMA— Di- 
ana of the Crossways: ii-xxi, 

XXIII-XXVII, XXIX-XXXI, XXXVI- 

XLin. 

DUPERTUY, MADAME — Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXII. 

DURANCE, COLNEY— One of 
Our Conquerors: i, iii-xxv, 

XXVII-XXIX, XXXI, XXXV-XLII. 

DURANDARTE— One of Our 
Conquerors: xx, xxi, xxxvi, 

XLI. 

DURHAM, CONST ANTIA— Ego- 
ist: I-III, VI, VII, IX, X, XII, XVI, 
XXI, XXII, XXIV, XXIX, XXXV- 
XXXVII, XXXIX, XLII, XLV. 

DURHAM, SIR JOHN— Egoist: 
III. 

DURIETTE, M.— Diana of the 
Crossways: xv. 

DUVIDNEY, MISSES DORO- 
THEA AND VIRGINIA— One 
of Our Conquerors: viii, xviii, 
XIX, XXII-XXVI, xxviii-xxx, 
XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXVI, XXXVII, 
XL. 

DYKES, MAJOR— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xix. 



E 



ECCLES, JONATHAN— Rhoda 
Fleming: xiv, xvii-xxiv. 

ECCLES. ROBERT — Rhoda 
Fleming: i, ii, iv, v. vii. ix, x, 

XIII, XV, XVII -xxv, XXX, XXXII, 
XXXIII, XXXV-XXXIX. XLI- 

XLVIII. 

ECKERTHY, TOM— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: vii-ix, 

XXIII, XL, XLIII. 

EDBURY, LADY MARIA— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIX, XLI, XLIl, XLIV, XLV, 
XLIX, LIII. 



EDBURY, MARCHIONESS OF 
—see SERENA, MARCHION- 
ESS OF EDBURY. 

EDBURY, MARQUIS THE EL- 
DER — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: xliv, liv. 

EDBURY, MARQUIS THE 
YOUNGER— see DESTRIER, 
LORD. 

EDELSHEIM, MAJOR— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: 

EDWARDS, HOWELL— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: xxviii-xxxiii. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



205 



EGLETT, LADY CHARLOTTE 
— Lord Orinont and His Amiii- 
ta: n-xi, xiir-xvii, xx-xxvi, 

XXVIII -XXX. 

EGLETT. MR.— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: ii, iii, xiii, 

XXII, XXIII, XXV, XXVI. 

EIGHTEENTHCENTURY.THE 
—see GRANTLEY, GREAT- 
AUNT. 

ELBURNE, COUNTESS— Evan 
Harrington: xxv, xl, xliii. 

ELDRITCH, LADY— Amazing 
Marriage: xii, xxiii, xxviii, 

XLV. 

ELECTOR AND ELECTRESS 
OF BAVARIA— Farina: vi. 

ELLING, LADY— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XVI, XXIV, XXVII. 

ELLING, LORD— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: VI, XI, XVI, XXI, XXII, XXIV. 

ELSEA, LADY — Beauchamp's 
Career: xxxix, xliv. 

ELTHAM, LORD— Sandra Bel- 
loni: Lvii, lviii. 

EL RASOON— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: XXII. 

EL ZOOP— Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXII. 

EMERLY, MADAME — Tragic 

Comedians: viii. 
EMILIO — Vittoria: xxxvii, xliv. 
EMPSON— Lord Ormont and His 

Aminta: xiii. 
ENCHANTRESS, T H E — see 

MOUNT, BELLA. 



ENDERMAN, FRANZ— Farina: 
I. 

ENDOR, LADY— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XII, XXIII, XXVIII, XLV. 

ENRICO — Vittoria: xliv. 

VON EPPENWELZEN, MAR- 
SHAL ALBRECHT WOHLGE- 
MUTH — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: xv-xviii, xxiv, 

XX VII. 

ERNEST, PRINCE OF EPPEN- 
WELZEN-SARKELD-Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XIV-XVII, XIX, XXV-XXVIII, 

XXXI-XXXVI, XXXVIII, XL, XLI, 
XLIII-XLV, XLVIII-LIII, LVI. 

ESQUART, LADY— Diana of the 
Crossways: xiv-xvi, xviii, xxii, 
xxv, XXVII, xxviii. 

ESQUART, LORD— Diana of the 
Crossways: xiv-xvi, xviii, xxv, 
xxvii. 

ETHERELL, CHARLES— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XLIV, XLVII. 

EUGENE— Vittoria: xi, xv. 

EVELEEN — Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: vii, xlvi. 

EVREMONDE, EVELY'N— Evan 
Harrington: xviii-xxii, xxiv, 
xxv, XXVII, xxx-xxxiv. 

EVREMONDE, CAPTAIN LAW- 
SON — Evan Harrington: xxx, 

XXXI, XXXIV. 

EZNOL, ABOO— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: XXIV, 



F 



FAKENHAM. ADMIRAL BALD- 
WIN — Amazing Marriage: ii, 

III, VI, VII, XI-XIII, XV, XIX- 
XXII. 

FAKENHAM, CURTIS— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: ii, iii. 

FAKENHAM, GEOFFRY— 

Amazing Marriage: ii. 
FAKENHAM, HENRIETTA— 

Amazing Marriage: iii, v-vii, 

IX-XIII, XV, XVII, XIX. XX, XXII- 
XXVIII, XXX, XXXV, XXXVI, 
XXXIX, XLIII-XLVII. 

FAKENHAM. COUNTESS LIV- 
lA — Amazing Marriage: iii, v, 

VII-XIII, XVII, XIX-XXVIII, XXXV, 
XXXIX-XLI, XLIII, XLV-XLVII. 



FALARIQUE, M.— One of Our 
Conquerors: xix, xxiv, xxviii, 

XLI. 

FALMOUTH — Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xlii, xliii. 

FANNING, GENERAL— One of 
Our Conquerors: ix. 

FANNING, MRS.— One of Our 
Conquerors: xvii, xx, xxi, xxiv, 

XXXVI. 

FARINA — Farina: i-xvii. 
FARINA, FRAU— Farina: vi, 

VII. 

FARNLEY, MR.— Evan Harring- 
ton: XXXI. 

FARRELL, AMINTA— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: i-xxx. 



206 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



FARRELL, CAPTAIN ALGER- 
NON — Lord Ormout and His 
Aminta: An. 

FARUGINO— Vittoria: xv. 

FEATHERDENE — Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: iv. 

FECKELWITZ, JACOB BAUM- 
WALDER — Vittoria: xiii, xxv- 

XXVIII, XXXIX, XLII, XLV. 

FEIL — Shaving of Shagpat: xxii, 

XXIII. 

FELLE, LADY JUDITH— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: xxxiv, 

XXXIX, XLI, XLII. 

FELLE, LORD— Ordeal of Rich- 
ard P'everel: xxxiv, xlii. 

FELLINGHAM, GENERAL— 
House on the Beach: viii, ix, 

XI. 

FELLINGHAM, HERBERT— 
House on the Beach: ii-xii. 

FELLINGHAM, MARY— House 
on the Beach: ix-xii. 

FELTRE, LORD— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XXI, XXII, XXVI -XXVI II, 
XXXIII, XXXVII-XLIV, XLVI, 

XLVII. 

FENBIRD & JAY, CHEMISTS— 

One of Our Conquerors: xiii. 
FENCASTER, MARCHIONESS 

GRACEY— Lord Ormont and 

His Aminta: xii. 
FENELLAN, CAPTAIN DART- 

REY — One of Our Conquerors: 

IV-VI, X, XV, XVI, XVIII, XIX, 
XXI, XXIV, XXV, XXVII, XXIX- 
XLII. 

FENELLAN, GENERAL— One 
of Our Conquerors: xix. 

FENELLAN, MRS. HENNEN— 
One of Our Conquerors: in, xix, 

XXV. 

FENELLAN, SIMEON— One of 
Our Conquerors: i-ix, xi-xiv, 

X"\T, XVII, XIX, XXI, XXII, XXIV, 

XXV, xxxr, XXXIII, xxxv- 

XXXVII, XXXIX-XLII. 

FENN, LAURA— Ordeal of Rich- 
ard Feverel: xxxviii. 

FENN, MR.— Diana of the Cross- 
ways: XXI. 

FENNELL, MASON— Amazing 
Marriage: xxxiv. 

FERBRASS, MR.— Beauchamp's 
Career: xviii, xx. 

FERNAWAY, JONATHAN— 
Egoist: XXVI. 



FESHNAVAT. VIZIER— Shav- 
ing of Shagpat: i, iii, v, vi, vui- 
XI, XIV, XAT. xviii-xxiv. 

FETTLE, SIMON— Amazing Mar- 
riage: II. 

FEVEREL, CAPTAIN ALGER- 
NON— Ordeal of Richard Fev- 
erel: I, IV, VIII, X-XII, XV, XXIII, 
XXV, XXAT, XXVIII, XXXII, XXXIV, 

FEVEREL, SIR AUSTIN ABS- 
WORTHY BERNE— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: i, ii, iv-xviii, 

XX-XXVI, XXVIII-XLI, XLIII-XLV. 

FEVEREL, LIEUTENANT 
CUTHBERT— Ordeal of Rich- 
ard Feverel: i. 

FEVEREL, HIPPIAS— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: i, iv, x, xii, 

XX, XXIII, XXV, XXVI, xxviii, 
XXIX, XXXII-XXXIV, XXXVII, 
XLI, XLIV. 

FEVEREL, LADY— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: i, xii, xxiv, 

XXXVII, XXXVIII, XL, XLI. 

FEVEREL, LUCY— see DES- 

BOROUGH, LUCY. 
FEVEREL, SIR PYLCHER— 

Ordeal of Richard Feverel: xvii, 
FEVEREL, RICHARD DORIA 

— Ordeal of Richard Feverel: i- 

XLV. 

FEVEREL, RICHARD II— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: xli- 

XLV. 

FEVEREL, VIVIAN— Ordeal of 

Richard Feverel: i. 
FINCHLEY, ISABELLA — Lord 

Ormont and His Aminta: iii, 

VI-VIII, X-XV, XVII, XIX, XXIII, 
XXV, XXX. 

FINCHLEY, LAWRENCE— 
Lord Ormont and His Aminta: 

III, VIII, XV, XXX. 

FISKE, ANNE— Evan Harring- 
ton: II, VII, IX, XXVI. 

FISKE, BARTHOLOMEW— 

Evan Harrington: vii. 
FITZGERALD, JUDGE— Diana 

of the Crossways: xxx. 
FLATSCHMANN, COLONEL — 

Vittoria: x. 
FLEETWOOD, COUNTESS— see 

KIRBY, CARINTHIA JANE. 
FLEETWOOD, D O W A G E R 

COUNTESS-see FAKENHAM, 

COUNTESS LIVIA. 
FLEETWOOD, EARL OF— see 

RUSSETT, EDWARD. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



207 



FLEISCHER, ADOLPH— Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta; xii, 

XXX. 

FLEMING, DAHLIA — Rhoda 
Fleming: i-xxv, xxvii-xxxix, 

XLI-XLVIII. 

FLEMING, RHODA — Rhoda 
Fleming: i-xv, xix, xxiii, xxv, 

XXVII, XXIX-XXXIII, XXXV- 

XLVIII. 

FLEMING, SUSAN — Rhoda 
Fleming: i-iii, v, vii, ix, xi, 

XXV, XLII. 

FLEMING, WILLIAM JOHN— 
Rhoda Fleming: i-iv, vii, ix-xv, 
XIX, xxv, xxx, xxxii, xxxiii, 

XXXV, XLVII. 

FLIPPER — Amazing Marriage: 

XV. 

FLITCH, MR. and MRS.— Egoist: 

XI, XVII-XIX, XXII, XXIV, XXVIII- 
XXX, XXXIV-XXXVI, XLIX. 

FLOYER, MARIANA— One of 
Our Conquerors: xxxvii. 

FOHRENDORF, COUNTESS OF 
—see AMALIA, DUCHESS. 

FORD, GEORGIANA— Sandra 
Belloni: xxvii, xxviii, xxxi, 

XXXII, XXXIV, XXXVI, XXXVII, 
XLI, XLIII, XLVI-L, LIII, LIV, LVI, 

Lix. Vittoria: XIX, XXXII, XXXV, 

XXXVIII. 

FOREY, ANGELICA and MA- 
TILDA— Ordeal of Richard 
Feverel: xxxii. 

FOREY, BRANDON and CLAR- 
ENCE— Ordeal of Richard Fev- 
erel: xxxii. 

FOREY, CLARE DORIA— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: i, iv, v, 

X-XIV, XX, XXVIII, XXIX, XXXII, 
XXXIV, xxv, XL, XLIV, XLV. 



FOREY, HELEN DORIA— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: i, iv, 

XII-XV, XXIV, XXIX, XXXII, 
XXXIV-XXXVIII, XL, XLIV, XLV. 

FOREY, MR.— Ordeal of Richard 
Feverel: xxxii. 

DE FORMOSA, DUKE and 
DUCHESSE DE FORTAND- 
IGUA — Evan Harrington: iii. 

FORTH, DRUMMOND— Evan 
Harrington: xii-xiv, xvi-xxv, 

XX VII, XXX-XXXIV, XLIII. 

FOSTER— Diana of the Cross- 
ways: XII. 

FOULKE, SQUIRE— Evan Har- 
rington: I. 

FRANCIS — Amazing Marriage: 

VIII, IX. 

FRANCO — see R E M A U D , 

FRANK. 

FRANCOIS— Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: VIII. 

FRANKENBAUCH— Farina: x. 
FREBUTER, GENERAL 
GEORGE — Evan Harrington: 

V. 

FRED — Evan Harrington: xxvi, 
xxx. 

FREDERICKS, COLONEL — 
Sandra Belloni: xxxvi. 

FREDERICKA, PRINCESS — 
Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

XVI. 

FREDI— see RADNOR, NESTA 
VITTORIA. 

FRIM, NICHOLAS— Evan Har- 
rington: XXIII, xxv, XXXVIII. 

FRITZ— Farina: x 



GAINSFORD— Sandra Belloni: 

XV, XVI, LIV, LV. 

GAMBIER, CAPTAIN AUGUS- 
TUS FREDERICK — Sandra 
Belloni: at, x-xii, xviii, xix, 
XXI, xxvii, xxviii, xxxi, xxxiii, 
XXXIV, xxxvii, xlii, xlvi, 
XLVII, Liii, Lvii. Vittoria: vi, 

X, XVII-XIX, XXVII, xxviii, 

XXXII, XXXV. 

GAMMON, MASTER — Rhoda 
Fleming: ii, vii, xiii-xv, xxv, 

XXXIII, XXXIX, XLI-XLIV, XLVII. 



GANNETT, DR.— Beauchamp's 

Career: xlviii-liii. 
GANNIUS, DELPHICA— One of 

Our Conquerors: xix, xxiv, 

XXVI, XXVIII, XXXVII, XLI. 

GANNIUS, DR.— One of Our 
Conquerors: xix, xxiv, xxviii, 

XXXVI. 

GARBLE, DAME— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: xviii. 

GARDNER, LADY SUSAN— 
Beauchamp's Career: xxvi. 



208 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



GARNER, MARY— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xx. 

GARRA VEEN— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: V, VII, XI, XII, XIV, XV, 
XVII, XVIII. 

GELLER, ERNEST— Farina: i. 
GIACINTA— Vittoria: xi, xx, 

XXII, XXIII, XXVI, XXXI, XXXV, 
XXXIX, XLV. 

GIESSLINGER, KATCHEN— 
Vittoria: xxiii. 

GIRLING, JOHN— Sandra Bel- 
loni: XI. 

GLADDING, MR.— One of Our 
Conquerors: ix. 

GLOSSOP, DR.— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XIII, XXXIV, Xli, XLV, 
XLVII. 

GOODWIN, CLARA— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: iv, 

XIV, XV, XVIII-XX, XXXVIII, 
XLVII, XLVIII, L. 

GOODWIN, COLONEL — Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

IV, XIV, XVIII-XX, XXXVIII, 
XLVII, XLVIII, L. 

GOORELKA— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: IX-XII, XVIII, XXIII. 

GOREN, MR. — Evan Harrington: 
II, IV, V, \ai, IX, XVI, XVII, XXVI, 

XXXVIII-XL. 

GOSHAWK, THE— see GUY, 
THE GOSHAWK. 

GOSLING, ADELINE— Rhoda 
Fleming: xvi, xix, xx, xxv. 

GOSLING, MR. and MRS.— Case 
of General Ople and Lady 
Camper: ii, vi, vii. 

GOSLING, MRS.— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XXI, xxv. 

GOSSIP, DEBORAH— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xviii. 

GOSSTRE, LADY— Sandra Bel- 
loni: IV, v, vii, ix, x, xiv, xv, 

XX VIII, XXXI, XXXII, xxxvii, 
XLII, XLVII, LIII, LIV, L^^. 

GOWEN, DAVID— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xii. 

GRAATLI, COUNT — Vittoria: 

XIII, XXVIII. 

GRAATLI, DUCHESS OF— see 
AMALIA, DUCHESS. 

GRAINE, GORDEN— Evan Har- 
rington: XVI. 



GRAINE, JENNIE— Evan Har- 
rington: XVI-XVIII, XX, XXX- 
XXXII. 

DE GRANDCHAMP, COLONEL 
COIN — Beauchamp's Career: 

XXV. 

GRANDISON, CAROLINE— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: xx, 

XXII, XXIII, XXVI, XXVIII, XXXII. 

GRANTLEY, GREAT-AUNT — 
Ordeal of Richard Feverel: i, ix, 
XX, XXIII, xxv, xxvii. 

GRAVES, PRISCILLA— One of 
Our Conquerors: iv, viii-xi, 

XIV, XV, XVIII, XX-XXII, XXIV, 
xxv, XXXI, XXXIII, XXXVI, 
XXXVIII, XLI, XLII. 

GREGORY, FATHER— Farina: 

VII-X, XIV-XVII. 

GRENAT, EMILE— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: i, iv, v, 

XII, XVIII, XXIV, XXX. 

GRIFFITH, DR.— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XXXIII. 

GRIST, MESSRS., SOLICITORS 
— Evan Harrington: xvii, 

XXXII, XXXVI, XLIV. 

VON GROSCHEN, FRAU— Fa- 
rina: II. 

VON GROSCHEN, GOTTLIEB 
— Farina: i-viii, x, xiv, xvii. 

VON GROSCHEN, LISBETH— 
Farina: ii, iv, vi-viii, xiv-xvi. 

VON GROSCHEN, MARGA- 
RITA — Farina: i-viii, x, xii- 

XVII. 

GROSSBY, MR.— Evan Harring- 
ton: I, VII. 

GUIDASCARPI, ANGELO— Vit- 
toria: XVIII, XIX, XXI, XXIII- 
XXXI, XXXIII-XXXVII, XXXIX, 
XLI-XLIII, XLVI. 

GUIDASCARPI, CLELIA— Vit- 
toria: XXIV, XXXIII. 
GUIDASCARPI, RENALDO — 

Vittoria: xviii, xix, xxiv, 

XXVII, XXIX-XXXIV, XLI, XLIII. 

GULREVAZ— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: X, XIV-XVII, XX, XXIV. 

GUNNETT, AMABEL FRYAR 
— Diana of the Crossways: 

XXVII, XXXVI, XXXVII, XXXIX, 
XLI, XLII. 

GUNNETT, FRAY AR— Diana of 

the Crossways: xli. 
GUY. THE GOSHAWK— Farina: 
m-iv, VIII, x-xvii 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



209 



H 



HABRAL — Evan Harrington: 

XXII. 

HACKBUT, ANTHONY— Rhoda 
Fleming: ii-viii, x, xii, xiv, 

XXV, XXXI, XXXIII, XL, XLII- 
XLVIII. 

HACKLEBRIDGE, GENERAL 
— Evan Harrington: ix. 

HACKMAN— Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: vi, vii. 

HALKETT. CECILIA — Beau- 
champ's Career: xi, xiv-xxiv, 

XXVI, xxviri-xxx, xxxii. 

XXXVII, XXXIX, XLII, XLIV-LVI. 

HALKETT, COLONEL — Beau- 
champ's Career: i, iii, iv, xii, 

XIV-XVIII, XX, XXII, XXVI, 
XXVIII-XXX, XXXII-XXXIX, XLIII, 
liVI. 

HALL, CAPTAIN ROBERT— 
Beauchamp's Career: iii, iv, 
XII, xxxii. 

HALLEY, LADY GRACE— One 
of Our Conquerors: iv, viii, ix, 

XI, XIV-XVI, XVIII, XXVI, XXVII, 
XXXI, XXXV, XXXVI. 

HALLEY, LORD— One of Our 

Conquerors: viii, xviii, xxv. 
HAMBLE, MR.— Rhoda Fleming: 

III, VI. 

HAMPTON-EVEY, REVEREND 

STEPHEN— Lord Ormont and 

His Aminta: iii, xiii, xvii, xxvi. 

HAPPENWYLL, GENERAL — 

Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIV. 

HAPPIT— Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: vi. 

HARDIST, CAPTAIN — Beau- 
champ's Career: xi, xv. 

HARLEY, ADRIAN— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: i, iv-vii, x- 
xiii, xx-xxvi, xxix-xxxvi, 

XXXVIII, XL, XLI, XLIV. 

HARLEY, MRS. JUSTICE— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: i. 

HARRINGTON, SIR ABRA- 
HAM — Evan Harrington: in, 

IX, XIII, XVII, XIX, XX, xxvii, 
XXXI, XXXVII. 

HARRINGTON, ADMIRAL— 
Evan Harrington: xxii. 

HARRINGTON, EVAN— Evan 
Harrington: i-xlvii. 



HARRINGTON, HENRIETTA 
MARIA DAWLEY— Evan Har- 
rington: II, IV, V, VII, IX. XIV, 
XVI, XXII, XXVI, XXVII, XXIX- 
XXXIII, XXXVII, XXXVIII, XLIV, 
XLVl, XLVII. 

HARRINGTON, MELCHISE- 
DEC — Evan Harrington: i, ii, 

IV-VII, XIV, XIX-XXVI, XXVIII- 
XXXIII, XXXVI-XXXVIII, XLIII, 
XLIV, XLVI. 

HART, REVEREND SIMON— 
Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

IX. 

HARTISTON. SIR ABRAHAM 
— Diana of the Cross ways: xxx. 

HARTSWOOD, COLONEL— Di- 
ana of the Cross ways: xli. 

HARVEY, WILLIAM — Evan 
Harrington: xv-xviii, xx, xxx, 

HATCHFORD. MARQUIS OF— 
Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

XLVII. 

HAWKSHAW, MRS.— Evan Har- 
rington: XXVI. 

HEDDON, COLONEL— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: liv, 

LVt. 

HEDDON, LIPSCOMBE— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: xviii. 

HEDDON, LORD— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xviii. 

HEDDON, LUCY— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: liv, lvi. 

HEDGES, ANDREW— Diana of 
the Cross ways: viii. 

HEINRICH, KAISER— Farina: 
i-ni, VIII, X, XI, XV, XVI. 

VON HELLER— Farina: iii. 

D'HENRIEL, COMTE HENRI 
— Beauchamp's Career: xxiii- 

XXV, XXXIX, XL. 

HEPBURN, ALEXANDER — 
Diana of the Crossways: xxviii, 

XXXIX. 

HERBSTBLUM, MARTHE— Fa- 
rina: II. 

HERIOT, WALTER— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: v-ix, 

XX, XXIII, XXXVI-XXXIX, XLin- 
XLV, XLIX, LV, LVI. 

HERMANN, PRINCE— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xxxiv, 

XLIV, LI-LIII, LVI. 



210 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



HICKSON, MR.— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxi, xxii. 

HIGGINSON, LADY MARIA— 
Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: XXXVI, XXXVIII, XLI. 

HILDA OF BAYERN— Farina: 

VI. 

HILL, BEAUCHAMP— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xlii, 

XLIII. 

HIPPERDON, NORMANTON— 
Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

XLIII, XLIV. 

HIPPONY, JACK— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: xlvii. 



HODGES, NAT— Evan Harring- 
ton: XIII, XX. 

VOM HOF, BARON— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: XLiv. 

VOM HOF, ECKART— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xxxii, 

XL, L, LI, LIII. 

HOLLINGER, COUNT— Tragic 
Comedians: xiii, xiv, xviii. 

HOLLIS, JOHN— Beauchamp's 
Career: v. 

HOLMES — Rhoda Fleming: 

XXXIV. 

HOPPNER,— Egoist: ix, xvii, 

XXIX. 



ILCHESTER, CHARLES— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

VIII, IX, XIX, LIII. 

ILCHESTER, JANET— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: viii, 

X, XII, XVIII-XX, XXIII, XXX, 
XXXVI-XLV, XLVII-LVI. 

ILCHESTER, LADY MARGAR- 
ET — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: viii, ix, xix, xli, 

LIII, LIV. 

ILCHESTER, SIR RODERICK 

— Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: VIII, XLI, LIII, LIV. 

INCHLING, MR.— One of Our 



Conquerors: i, xvii, xviii, xxi, 

XXVII. 

INCHLING, MRS.— One of Our 
Conquerors: xviii, xxvii. 

INES, CHRISTOPHER— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: xiv-xix, xxi, 
XXIII, XXV, XXIX, XXX, xxxii, 
XXXIII, XXXV, XXX VI, XL, XLI, 
XLVI. 

INES, MR. — Amazing Marriage: 

XVIII. 

ISENTRUDE— Farina: vi. 
D'ISORELLA, COUNTESS— Vit- 
toria: xvi, xxx, xxxi, xxxiv, 

XXXVI-XLV. 



JACK— see RAIKES, JOHN 

FAVERSHAM. 
JACKO — Evan Harrington: ii, 

VII, IX. 

JACOBS, MR.— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxxix. 

DE JACQUIERES. MADAME— 
Diana of the Cross ways: xxx. 

JANE — Evan Harrington: ix. 

JANE — House on the Beach: vi, 

XI, XII. 

JANE, AUNT— Rhoda Fleming: 

XVII, XXIII. 

JARNIMAN— One of Our Con- 
querors: III, IV, VII, X, XVI, XIX, 
XXI, XXII, xxx, XXXI, XXXVI, 
XL-XLII. 

JARNIMAN, MRS.— One of Our 
Conquerors: xv. 



JAYE, LADY JULIANA— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: iv. 

JENKINSON, MRS. MOUNT- 
STUART— Egoist: II-VI, IX, X, 

XVII, XVIII, XXIV, XXVII-XXXIX, 
XLI, XLIII-XLVIl, XLIX, L. 

JENNA, LIEUTENANT— Vitto- 
ria: ix, x, xxix, xxx, xxxix, 

XL, XLVI. 

JENNINGS, MR.— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxxix, xlii, 

XLIII. 

JEREMY— Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: liii. 

JERIDOMANI, SIGNOR— One 
of Our Conquerors: xxviii. 

JIM — Sandra Belloni: ii, viii, ix, 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



211 



JINKSON, GILES— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: viii-xi, xx, 

XXIII. 

JOCELYN, ALEC— Evan Har- 
rington: IV, XIV, XVI, XXXVII. 

JOCELYN, LADY EMILY— 
Evan Harrington: iii, ix, xiv, 

XVI-XXXV, XXXVII, XL, XLI, 
XLIII-XLVI. 

JOCELYN, SIR FRANKS— Evan 
Harrington: iii, ix, xiv, xvi, 
XIX, XXI, XXII, XXV, xxvii- 
XXIX, XXXI, XXXIII, XXXVII, 
XLIII, XLV, XLVI. 

JOCELYN, HONORABLE HAM- 
ILTON EVERARD — Evan 
Harrington: xiii, xiv, xvi, xxi, 

XXII, XXIX. 

JOCELYN, HARRY— Evan Har- 
rington: XII, XIV-XVI, XVIII- 
XXV, XXVII-XXXIII, XXXVII, XL, 
XLIII, XLV, XLVII. 

JOCELYN, HONORABLE MEL- 
VILLE — Evan Harrington: iii, 

IV, VII, VIII, XIII -XVII, XIX-XXII, 
XXIV, XXV, XXVII-XXX, XXXVII. 

JOCELYN, MRS.— Evan Har- 
rington: IV, XIV, XV, XVII, XXII, 
XXIV, XXVII, XXIX, XXXII, 
XXXVII, XLIV. 



JOCELYN, ROSE— Evan Har- 
rington: III, IV, VI, VII, IX, X, 
XIII-XXII, XXIV, XXV, XXVII-XL, 
XLIII-XLVII. 

JOCELYN, COLONEL SEY- 
MOUR — Evan Harrington: xiv, 

XX -XXII, XXVII, XXXI, XXXVII. 

JOCHANY, COUNT— Diana of 
the Crossways: xiv. 

JOE — Rhoda Fleming: xlii. 

JOHN— Ordeal of Richard Fev- 
erel: XXXVIII. 

JONATHAN— Evan Harrington: 

VIII. 

JONES, MRS. MARY— Amazing 

Marriage: xviii, xix, xxii. 
JOPSON, MR.— Adventures of 

Harry Richmond: xxxix. 
JOSEF: Amazing Marriage: v. 
JOYCE — Evan Harrington: vii. 
JULINKS, MISS— One of Our 

Conquerors: xxi. 
VON DER JUNGFERWEIDE. 

HEINRICH— Farina: i. 
JUPP — Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: in. 

JUTTA, PFALZGRAFIN — Fa- 
rina: VI. 



K 



KADRAB— Shaving of Shagpat: 

XI. 

KADZA— Shaving of Shagpat: i, 
XI, xxi-xxiv. 

KALTBLUT, FRAU— Farina: ii. 

KANE, LADY— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xli, xlii, lvi. 

KARAVEJIS— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: XVII-XXI, XXIII. 

KARAZ — Shaving of Shagpat: v- 

VIII, X-XII, XIV, XVI-XXI, XXIII, 
XXIV. 

DI KARSKI, IRMA — Vittoria: 

XIII-XV, XVII, XIX-XXI, XXXVI, 
XL, XLII, XLV. 

VON KARSTEG PROFESSOR 
JULIUS — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: xxvii-xxxi, xxxiv, 

XLIV. 

KASIRWAN, SHAH— Shaving of 

Shagpat: xiv. 
KATH — Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: xxxv. 



KEMPSON, MRS. — Amazing 
Marriage: I. 

KENDALL,— Beauchamp'a Ca- 
reer: XLIV. 

KESENSKY, GRAF — Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xlii, 
XLIII, Lv, lvi. 

KHIPIL— Shaving of Shagpat: 

III, IV, XXII. 

KILLICK, SAMUEL — Beau- 
champ's Career: xix, xx, liv, 

LV. 

KILNE — Evan Harrington: i, ii, 

VII, XXVI. 

KILTORNE, LADY CHAR- 
LOTTE— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: XIX. 

KING OF OOLB— Shaving of 
Shagpat: viii-xi, xxi-xxiv. 

KING OF THE CITY OF SHAG- 
PAT— Shaving of Shagpat: i, 
xx-xxiv. 



212 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



KIOMI — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: vii-ix, xviii, xx, 

XXIII, XXXVI, XL, XLV-XLVII, 
LV, LVI. 

KIRBY, CARINTHIA JANE— 
Amazing Marriage: i, in-ix, xi- 
XIX, xxi-xxxi, xxxiii-xxxv, 

XXXVII -XLVII. 

KIRBY-LEVELLIER, CHIL- 
TON SWITZER JOHN— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: i, iii-viii, x-xiii, 
XV, xix-xxi, xxiv-xxx, xxxii, 

XXXV-XXXVII, XXXIX-XLVII. 

KIRBY, CAPTAIN JOHN PE- 
TER AVASON— Amazing Mar- 
riage: I-V, XI-XIII, XV, XVII, 
XVIII, XXII, XXIII, XXV-XXVII, 
XXIX-XXXIV, XXXVI, XL, XLII, 
XLIV-XLVII. 

KIRBY, RALPH THORKILL— 
Amazing Marriage: i. 



KIRBY, STANSON — Amazing 
Marriage: I. 

KIT— see INES, 
PHER. 



KOLLIN, COUNT- 
medians: ii-iv. 



CHRISTO- 
- Tragic Co- 



KOOROOKH— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: XVI, XVIII-XX, XXIII, xxiv. 

KORNIKOFF, COUNTESS— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

LIII. 

KRAUT — Farina: ii, vi. 

KRESNUK, KING OF GAF— 
Shaving of Shagpat: xxii-xxiv. 

KROOJIS— Shaving of Shagpat: 



KROOZ EL KRAZAWIK— Shav- 
ing of Shagpat: xxi-xxiii. 



LAMMAKIN— Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XI. 

LANDLADY OF THE AURORA 
— Evan Harrington: viii. 

LARKINS— Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: vi. 

LARRIAN, GENERAL— Diana 
of the Crossways: ii-iv, vi, xi, 

XIII, XIV, XVIII, XXVIII, XXXV, 
XLIII. 

LATTERS, HARRY — Rhoda 
Fleming: xxxi, xxxviii. 

LAUNAY, COLONEL— Diana of 
the Crossways: xli. 

LAXLEY, FERDINAND— Evan 
Harrington: xii, xiii, xv-xx, 

XXII-XXV, XXVII, XXIX-XXXVIII, 
XL, XLII, XLIII, XLV-XLVII. 

LAXLEY, LORD— Evan Har- 
rington: XIX. 

LEBERN, COUNT — Amazing 
Marriage: v. 

LEBRUNO— Vittoria: xix-xxi. 

LECZEL, GENERAL — Tragic 
Comedians: xvi, xvii. 

LEDDINGS — Amazing Marriage: 

XXXII, XXXVII, XL. 

LEEMAN — Lord Ormont and His 
Aminta: xiii. 

VON LENKENSTEIN, COM- 
MENDATORE GRAF ADEL- 
BERT— Vittoria: xi, xxviii. 

XXX, XXXIII, XL, XLV. 



VON LENKENSTEIN, COUNT- 
ESS ANNA— Vittoria: xiv, 
XVIII-XX, xxvi-xxx, xxxiii, 
XXXIV, XXXVI -XL, XLII, XLIV, 
XLV. 

VON LENKENSTEIN, BIANCA 
— Vittoria: xi, x^^II, xxvii, 

XXVIII, XXX, XXXVI, XLV. 

VON LENKENSTEIN, COUNT 
KARL — Vittoria: xxxii-xxxiv, 

XXXVI, XXXVIII -XL, XLV, XLVI. 

VON LENKENSTEIN, COUNT- 
ESS LENA— Vittoria: ix, xiv, 

XVIII-XX, XXVII-XXX, XXXIV, 

XXXVI, XXXVIII-XL, XLV. 

VON LENKENSTEIN, COUNT 
PAUL — Vittoria: ix, xviii, xix, 
XXVI, XXVII, xxxiii, xxxiv, 

XXXVII, XXXIX, XLV. 

LEO — Lord Ormont and His 
Aminta: iii, xiii. 

LEONARDO— Vittoria: xx, xxi. 

LESPEL, GRANCEY — Beau- 
champ's Career: xi, xv, xvii- 

XXII, XXVIII, XXXI, XXXII, 
XXXIX, XLV. LV. 

LESPEL, MRS. GRANCEY— 
Beauchamp's Career: xx, xxi, 

XXVI, XLV, LV. 

LEVELLIER, LORD— Amazing 
Marriage: i-iii, v, xiii, xiv, 
XVII, XVIII, XXII, xxiv, xxvii, 
XXXIV, XXXV, XLII, XLIII, XLV, 
XLVI. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



213 



LEWISON, LADY MARY— Ego- 
ist: XXIII. 

LIESCHEN— Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: xv, xxxiii, xxxv. 

LIESCHEN— Farina: vi. 

LIKA, COUNT— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xliii. 

LINNINGTON, FRED — Evan 
Harrington: xiii. 

LISA — Vittoria: xxvii. 

LIVELYSTON, LORD — Evan 
Harrington: iv, xiv. 

LIVRET, M.— Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XXIII, XXV. 

LLEWELLYN — Amazing Mar- 
riage: XXXIV. 

LOCKRACE, EARL OF— Beau- 
champ's Career: xxxii, xxxvii. 

LOEPEL, COUNT— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: xxxii. 

LOFTUS, ADMIRAL— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xxxix, 

XM, XLII, XLVIII, L. 

LORENZO— Vittoria: ix, xlvi. 
LORING, DOROTHY — Evan 
Harrington: xiii, xvi, xvii, xix, 

XX, XXX, XXXVII, XLII. 

LORING, SIR JOHN— Evan 
Harrington: xvi, xviii, xix, xxi, 

XXIX-XXXI, XXXIII, XXXVII. 



LOTSDALE, CRANMER— One 
of Our Conquerors: xxi. 

LOVELL, HARRY — Rhoda 
Fleming: vi, xxii. 

LOVELL, MARGARETT— Rho- 
da Fleming: i, vi, vrii, ix, xvi- 

XXIV, XXVII-XXXII, XXXIV, 

XXXVI, XLIV-XLVIII. 

LOWTON, SIR GEORGE— Evan 
Harrington: xiii. 

LUCIANI BIANCA— One of Our 
Conquerors: xx, xxi. 

LULOO — Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXI. 

LUMLE Y, CAPTAIN — Sandra 
Belloni: xxxvi. 

LUMLEY, MR.— Adventures of 

Harry Richmond: xxi. 
LUPIN, MRS.— Sandra Belloni: 

III, XV, XVI, XXVII, XXIX, XXXII, 
XXXIII. 

LUTON, EARL OF— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: XLVii. 

LYDIARD, LOUISE — Beau- 
champ's Career: xxxiii, xxxvii, 

XLV. 

LYDIARD, MR.— Beauchamp's 
Career: xii, xix-xxi, xxvii, 

XXVIII, XXXIII, xxxv, XXXVII, 
XXXIX, XLII, XLV, XLVI, XLVIII, 
L-LVI. 



M 



MACKRELL, JOHN ROSE— 
Amazing Marriage: xxiii, xxiv, 
XXVI, XXVIII, XXXI V, xxxix, 
XLV-XLVII. 

MACPHERSON, DR. WILLIAM 
— Diana of the Crossways: xxvt, 

XXVII. 

MAHONY, CAPTAIN CAREW 
— Diana of the Crossways: xiii, 

XXVIII. 

MAHRLEN, PROFESSOR— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIII. 

MALET, CAPTAIN— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: xiv. 

MALKIN, MR.— Diana of the 
Crossways: iii. 

MALLARD. AMBROSE— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: iii, xv, xvx, x\^II, 
xxiii, XXVIII, XXXIV, xxxv, 

XXXIX, XLI, XLII, XLIV. 

MALLOW, MRS.— Sandra Bel- 
loni: VII, XIV. 



MANTON— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: XXIII, XXXIV. 

MANX, QUINTIN— Diana of the 
Crossways: xv, xvii, xxi, xxvii, 
XXXIII, xxxv. 

MAPLES, MRS.— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xiii. 

MARGARET— Ordeal of Richard 
Feverel: xxviii. 

MARIA — Vittoria: xxiv. 

MARIANDAL— Amazing Mar- 
riage: III, V. 

MARINI, GIULIA— Sandra Bel- 
loni: XXXVII-XL, LII, LIX. 

MARINI, LUIGI— Sandra Bel- 
loni: XXXIV, XXXVII, XXXVIII, 
XL, XLVI-XLVIII, LIX. 

MARION— Sandra Belloni: xxx. 
MARK — Evan Harrington: xi, 

XII. 

MARKHAM, NED— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: vii. 



214 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



MARKLAND. MRS.— Diana of 
the Cross ways: xxxv. 

MARQUIS, THE — see HAR- 
RINGTON, MELCHISEDEC. 

MARSCHATSKA— Vittoria: iv. 

MARSETT, CAPTAIN ED- 
WARD— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: XXVIII, XXIX, XXXII, XXXIV, 
XXXVIII, XXXIX. 

MARSETT, JUDITH — One of 
Our Conquerors: xxvin, XL. 

MARSHALLED. KING— Shav- 
ing of Shagpat: ii. 

MARTER, REVEREND MR.— 
Sandra IBelloni: xxiii, xxxiv. 

MARTHA — Amazing Marriage: 

XXIX, xxxii, XXXIII, xxxv. 
MARTHA— Lord Ormont and 

His Aminta: xiv. 

MARTIN, ELIZABETH— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: i. 

MARTIN, WILLIAM— Amazing 
Marriage: i. 

MARTINEZ, CAPTAIN- Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: Lvi. 

MARTINSWARD, CATHERINE 

—Tale of Chloe: ii-x. 
MARY — Beauchamp's Career: 

XLVII. 

MARY — Egoist: xl. 

MARY — Evan Harrington: xxvi. 

MARY — One of Our Conquerors: 

XXVIII, XXXII, XXXIV, XXXVI. 

MASNER, JOSEPH— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: i, xi, 

XXVIII. 

MASTALONE, FILIPPO— Vit- 
toria: II. 

MATEY— see W^EYBURN, MAT- 
THEW. 

MATTEO— Vittoria: xiv. 

MAY, AMY— Lord Ormont and 
His Aminta: vi. xi, xii, xv, xvi, 

XVIII, XIX, XXI, XXIU, XXV, 
XXVI. 

MAY, CAPTAIN— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: vi, xr, xii, 

XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXV, XXVI. 

MEDOLE, COUNT— Vittoria: ii, 

VIII, X, XII, XV, XVI, XVIII, XX, 

XXX. XXXI, XXXV. XXXVIII, XL. 

MEDOLE, COUNTESS — Vitto- 
ria: XL. 

MEEK, EZRA and JONATHAN 
— Amazing Marriage: xlii. 



MEL— see (1) HARRINGTON, 
MELCHISEDEC and (2) JOCE- 
LYN, HONORABLE MEL- 
VILLE. 

MELVILLE, MRS.— see JOCE- 
LYN, MRS. 

MENAI, COUNTESS OF— Beau- 
champ's Career: xxxi. 

MERCADESCO— Vittoria: xxix. 

MERION, DAN — Diana of the 
Crossways: i-iii, v, vii, viii, 
XVII, XIX, XXIII, xxviii, xxxvii, 
xxxviii. 

MERION, DIANA— see WAR- 
WICK, DIANA ANTONIO. 

M'GILLIPER— Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XIX. 

MICHELL — Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: IV, XI. 

MICHIELA— Vittoria: xiv, xix- 

XXI, XXIII, XXV, XXXII. 

MIDDLETON, CLARA— Egoist: 

IV-L. 

MIDDLETON, MRS. — Egoist: 

XX. 

MIDDLETON, REVEREND DR. 
— Egoist: iv-xi, XIII, xv, xvii- 
XXVII, xxix-xxxvii, xxxix, 

XLI-L. 

MILLINGTON, COLONEL— 
Beauchamp's Career: xxi. 

MINA — Vittoria: xxvi. 

MOLYNEAUX, PETER— Beau- 
champ's Career: xix, xx. 

MONTAGUE — Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: vi. 

MONTAGUE— One of Our Con- 
querors: XXIII. 

MONTAGUE. MRS.— Egoist: vii. 

XIX, XXIV, XXV. 

MONTESINI— Vittoria: xxix. 
MONTINI— Vittoria: xix-xxii, 

XXXVIII. 

MONTVERT, MR. and MRS.— 
Diana of the Crossways: xiv. 

MOODY, WILLIAM — Rhoda 
Fleming: xviii, xix, xxiv. 

MORSFIELD, ADOLPHUS— 
Lord Ormont and His Aminta: 
III, VI, viii, X-XIII, xv-xxvi, 
XXIX. 

MORTIMER, MR.— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XL. 

MORTIMER, MRS.— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xxxvi. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



215 



MORTON, MR.— Ordeal of Rich- 
ard Feverel: ii, iv, xx, xxxiv. 

MORTON, RALPH BARTHROP 
— Ordeal of Richard Feverel: 

XII, XIV, XV, XXVIII, XXIX, 
XXXIV, XXXV, XLV. 

MOUNT, BELLA— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xxxv-xxxviii, 

XLIII. 

MOUNTFALCON, LORD— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: xxxiv- 

XXXVI, XXXIX, XLIII, XLV. 



MOUNTNEY, MAB— One of Our 

Conquerors: xiii. 
MOUNTSTUART, MRS. — see 

JENKINSON, MRS. MOUNT- 
STUART. 
MUNCASTLE, MR.— Lord Or- 

mont and His Aminta: i. 
MUSTAPHA, BABA— Shaving of 

Shagpat: i, iii, viii, ix, xii, xiv, 

xx-xxiv. 
MYTHARETE, PISISTRATUS 

— One of Our Conquerors: xix, 

XXVIII, XLI. 



N 



NAGEN, GENERAL— Vittoria: 

XXXIX, XLIV-XLVI. 

NASE, PFALZGRAF— Farina: 

XVI. 

NASHTA— Shaving of Shagpat: 

II. 
NATKINS— Ordeal of Richard 

Feverel: iv. 



NEWSON, MR.— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxiv, xxv, 

XXVII, XXXIX, XLI, XLII, XLIV, 
XL VII. 

NOORNA BIN NOORKA— Shav- 
ing of Shagpat: i, iii, v-xxiv. 

NYMNEY — Amazing Marriage: i. 



o 



OAKES — Lord Ormont and His 

Aminta: xxviii. 
OGGLER — Beauchamp's Career: 

XIX. 

OPLE, ELIZABETH— Case of 
General Ople and Lady Camper: 

I-VIII. 

OPLE, GENERAL WILSON— 
Case of General Ople and Lady 
Camper: i-viii. 

D'ORBEC. BARONNE— Beau- 
champ's Career: xxiii, xxv. 

D'ORBEC, M.— Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: xxiii, xxv. 

ORMOND, CAROLINE— Beau- 
champ's Career: xxvi. 

ORMONT, MAJOR GENERAL 
THOMAS ROWSLEY— Lord 



Ormont and His Aminta: i-xiii, 
xv-xxvi, XXVIII-XXX. 

ORSO, COUNT— Vittoria: xix- 

XXI. 

OSRIC — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: vii, viii. 

OTTILIA, PRINCESS WILHEL- 
MINA FREDERIKA HED- 
WIG — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: xv-xix, xxiv- 

XXXIX, XLI-XLIV, XLVII-LVI. 

OTTILIA— Farina: ii. 

OTTO, PRINCE— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxvt, xxvii, 

XXX -XXXI V, XXXIX. 

OXFORD, CAPTAIN HARRY— 
Egoist: III, X, XXI, xxiii, XLii. 



PAG NELL, ALFRED NAR- 
GETT— Lord Ormont. and His 
Aminta: vr. 

PAGNELL, MRS. NARGETT— 
Lord Ormont and His Aminta: 

I, III, V-VIII, X, XII, XIII, XV- 
XXI, XXVI. 



PALMET, LORD ERNEST— 
Beauchamp's Career: xix-xxi, 

XXVI, XXVIII-XXXI, XXXVI, 

XXXVII, XLIV, XLV, LV. 

PAPWORTH, SIR MILES— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: ii, iv- 

VI. XI. 



216 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



PARSLEY, MR.— Evan Harring- 
ton: XIII-XV, XIX, XXV, XXVII, 
XXXIII, XLVII. 

PARSONS, JAMES PANNERS— 
Lord Ormont and His Aminta: 

XII. 

PARYLI, PRINCESS THERESE 
— Diana of the Cross ways: xiv. 

PAT — Evan Harrington: xxv. 

PATTERNE, CROSS J AY— Ego- 
ist: IV, VI-XV, XVII-XIX, XXI- 
XXXIII, XXXVI-XLIII, XLVI-L. 

PATTERNE, LIEUTENANT 
CROSSJAY — Egoist: i, iv, viii, 

IX, XI, XXXII, XLII. 

PATTERNE, LADIES ELEA- 
NOR and ISABEL— Egoist: 

I, II, IV, VI-X, XIV, XV, XXII, 
XXIV, xxv, XXIX-XXXI, XXXVI 
XXXVin, XXXIX, XLI, xliv- 
XLVI, XLIX. 

PATTERNE, LADY— Egoist: i- 

VI, XIII. 

PATTERNE, MRS.— Egoist: viii, 

XLII. 

PATTERNE, SIMON— Egoist: i. 
PATTERNE, SIR WILLOUGH- 

BY — Egoist: i-xi, xiii-l. 
PAWLE, BARON— Diana of the 

Crossways: xxx. 
PAYNE — Sandra Belloni: xxxii. 

PAYNHAM, MARY— Diana of 
the Crossways: xviii, xix, xxi, 

XXIII, xxv, XXVII-XXX, XXXIX, 
XLI-XLIII. 

PAYNTER— Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: vi. 

DE PEL, COUNTESS— Evan 
Harrington: iii. 

PEMPTON, MR.— One of Our 
Conquerors: iv, viii, ix, xi, xiv, 
xviii, xx-xxii, xxv, XXXIII, 

XXXVI, XL-XLII. 

PENNERGATE, MR.— One of 

Our Conquerors: xviii. 
PENNON, LADY— Diana of the 

Crossways; i, xiv, xvii, xviii, 

XXI, XXIII, xxv, xxviii-xxx, 

xxxix. 

PENNYCUICK, MR. — Rhoda 

Fleming: xl. 
PENRHYS, ANNA— Adventures 

of Harry Richmond: xx-xxii, 

XXVII, XXXIX, XLI-XLIV. 

PEPPEL, COMMANDER— Beau- 
champ's Career: xvii, xlvii. 



PERICLES, ANTONIO AGIOL- 
OPOULOS— SandraBelloni: i-v, 

xvii, xxi, XXIII, XXIV, xxvii, 
XXX-XXXII, XXXIV, XXXVII, 
XXXIX, XL, XLII, LII, LIV-LVI, 

Lviii, Lix. Vittoria: v-viii, xiii, 

XIV, XVII-XXI, XXIII, XXXI, 
XXXVIII, XL-XLII, XLIV. 

PERIDON, MR.— One of Our 
Conquerors: iv, viii, xi, xiv, 

XV, XVIII, XX, XXII, xxv, XXXIII, 
xxx VI, XL-XLII. 

PERKINS — Evan Harrington: 

XLIV. 

PERKINS, MR.— Evan Harring- 
ton: VII, XLIV, XLV. 

PERKINS, MRS.— Evan Har- 
rington: XXXI. 

PERRIN— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: XXIII, XXXIV, XXXV. 

PETERBOROUGH, REVER- 
END AMBROSE— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: xxiii- 

XXVII, xxx, XXXIII, XXXIV, 
XXXVI-XXXVIII, XLI, LI. 

PETTIFER, SIR WILSON— 

Egoist: XXXV. 
PETTIGREW, MRS.— Diana of 

the Crossways: ii, iii, xiv, 

XVIII, XLII. 

VON PFENNIG— Farina: in. 

PHELPS, LUMMY — Amazing 
Marriage: xv. 

PHILIBERTE, DAME— Beau- 
champ's Career: xxiii, xxiv. 

PHILIPPA— Lord Ormont and 
His Aminta: in. 

PHILLIMORE, DICK— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: 

XLVIII. 

PHIPPUN— House on the Beach: 

II-IV. 

PIAVENI, AMALIA— Vittoria: 

XI-XIII, XXVIII, XL-XLII. 

PIAVENI. GIACOMO— Vittoria: 

V, IX, XVIII, XXVIII, xxx, XXXVI. 

PIAVENI, GIACOMO II— Vit- 
toria: XI-XIII, XXVIII, XL-XLII. 

PIAVENI, LAURA— Vittoria; v, 

VIII, X, XII-XIV, XVI, XVIII-XXI, 
XXIII, XXVII, XXVIII, XXXI- 
XXXIII, XXXV-XLVI. 

PIERSON, COLONEL JOHN— 
Sandra Belloni: xvi, xxiii, xliii, 
LII, Lix. Vittoria: vi, viii-x, 
XIV, XVII, xix-xxii, XXVIII, xxx, 

XXXII, XXXIX, XL. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



217 



PIERSON, LIEUTENANT— see 

POLE, WILFRID. 
PILLIE, DR.— Evan Harrington: 

XI, XII. 

PINNET — Lord Ormont and His 
Aminta: xxviii. 

PITSCREW, LORD SIMON— 
Amazing Marriage: ii, iii, xxii, 
xxxiv, xxxix. 

PLUMSTON. TOMMY— Tale of 
Chloe: v. 

PLUNGER — Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XI. 

POLE, ADEL A— Sandra Belloni: 

I-V, VII-X, XIV-XVII, XIX, XXI, 
XXIII, XXIV, XXVII, XXIX-XXXI- 
XXXVII, XLII, LII-LVII, LIX. 

Vittorfa^ vi-ix, xvii-xix, xxviii, 

XXXVII-XL. 

POLE, ARABELLA— Sandra Bel- 
loni: I-V, VII-X, XIV-XVII, XIX, 

XXI, XXVII, XXIX, XXXI-XXXVI, 
XLII, LII, LVI, LIX. 

POLE, CORNELIA— Sandra Bel- 
loni: I-V, VII-X, XIV-XIX, XXI, 

XXII, XXVI, XXVII, XXIX, XXX- 

XXXVI, XXXVIII, XL, XLII, LII- 
LVII, LIX. 

POLE, SAMUEL BOLTON— 
Sandra Belloni: i-v, vii-ix, 

XIV-XVII, XIX, XXIII-XXXV, 

XXXVII, XXXIX, XL, XLII, LIV, 
LVI, LIX. 

POLE, WILFRID: Sandra Bel- 
loni: I-VIII, X-XXI, XXIII, XXIV, 

xxvi-Liv, Lvi-Lix. Vittoria: v- 
X, XIV, XVII-XXII, xxvii-xxx, 
XXXII-XXXIV, XXXVII, XXXIX- 
XL, XLV, XLVI. 

POLLINGTON — Egoist: xxv, 

XXIX. 

POLLINGTON. MR. and MRS. 

— Case of General Ople and Lady 

Camper: ii, vi, vii. 
POLLY— see WISHAW, MARY 

FENCE. 



POLTERMORE, COLONEL— 
Tale of Chloe: vii, viii, x. 

POONEY, SIR ALFRED— House 
on the Beach: vii. 

POSTERLEY, REVEREND 
ABRAM— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: XXIII, XXIV, XXIX, XXX, 
XXXIII. 

POSTILLION— Evan Harrington: 

VI, VII. 

POTTIL, SIR HUMPHREY and 
LADY— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: XXII, XXIV. 

POTTS, CHUMLEY— Amazing 
Marriage: iii, x-xii, xv-xviii, 

XXIII, XXVI, XXVIII, XXXI V, 
XXX Vll, XXXIX-XLII, XLIV, XLV. 

POTTS, COLONEL JACK— 

Amazing Marriage: ii. 
POWYS, MERTHYR — Sandra 

Belloni: v, x, xv, xviii, xxvii- 

XXIX, XXXI, XXXII, xxxiv, 
XXXVII, XXXVIII, XLI, XLIII, 
XLV-L, LII, LIV, LVI, LVIII, LIX. 

Vittoria: xiii, xix, xxvii, 

XXVIII, XXXII, XXXV, XXXVI, 
XXXVIII-XLVI. 

PRANCER — Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XI. 

PRIDDEN, MARTHA— One of 
Our Conquerors: xxxi, xxxiii, 

XXXIV, XXXVII, XXXIX, XLI, 
XLII. 

PRINCE PALATINE OF BO- 
HEMIA— Farina: VI. 

PRYME, SIR TWICKENHAM— 
Sandra Belloni: x, xv-xvii, xix, 
XXVII, XXXI, XXXIII, xxxiv, 

XXXVI, XXXVII, XLII, LV, LVII, 
LIX. 

PULLEN— Diana of the Cross- 
ways: XL. 

PURLBY, COLONEL— Diana of 
the Crossways: xiv. 

DE PYRMONT, GEORGES— 
Vittoria: xiii, xiv, xix, xx, 

XXII. 



Q 



QUATLEY, LADY— One of Our 

Conquerors: xxvii, xli. 

QUATLEY, SIR ABRAHAM— 
One of Our Conquerors: xxi, 

XXIII, XXVI, XX\T[I, XXXVI, 
XXXVII. 



QUEEN OF PORTUGAL— Evan 

Harrington: xxxi. 
QUEENEY, JOSHUA— Amazing 

Marriage: xxxiv, xxxvii, xl, 

XLI. 

QUILLETT, MRS. COWPER— 
Amazing Marriage: xiii, xvii. 



218 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



R 



RABESQURAT — Shaving of 
Shagpat: in, v, x, xii-xiv, xvii, 

XXI, XXIII, XXIV, 

RABY, DUCHESS OF— Diana of 
the Crossways: xiv. 

RADNOR, MRS. BURMAN — 
One of Our Conquerors: iii- 
VIII, xi-xiv, xvi, XVIII-XXII, 
XXIV, XXV, XXVII, XXX, XXXVI, 
XXXVII, XXXIX, XLII. 

RADNOR, GENERAL— One of 
Our Conquerors: xxii, xxiii. 

RADNOR, NATALIA DREIGH- 
TON — One of Our Conquerors: 
II-VI, VIII-XIX, xxi-xxxi, 

XXXIII-XLII. 

RADNOR, NESTA VICTORIA— 
One of Our Conquerors: ii, in, 

V. VI, VIII-XLII. 

RADNOR, VICTOR MONTGOM- 
ERY — One of Our Conquerors: 

I-XXVII, XXIX, XXXI, XXXIII, 
XXXV-XXXVII, XXXIX-XLII. 

RADOCKY, PRINCE LOUIS— 

Vittoria: xl, xlv. 
RAIKES, JOHN FEVERSHAM 

— Evan Harrington: x-xiv, xvi- 

XIX, XXV-XXXIV, XXXVI-XLI, 
XLV-XLVII. 

RAINER, CHARLES— Diana of 

the Crossways: xvii, xxi, xxiii. 

RAMBONI, COUNT— Vittoria: 

XLV. 

RAMPAN, CAPTAIN— Diana of 

the Crossways: iv. 
RANDELLER, SIR JOHN— 

Lord Ormont and His Aminta: 

III, VI, XII, XXIX. 

RANDOM, MISS— Ordeal of Rich- 
ard Feverel: xxxvi. 

DE RASADIO, CHEVALIER 
MIGUEL— Evan Harrington: 
xxiv. 

RASATI, COUNT— Vittoria: xv. 

RASOON, EL— see EL RASOON. 

RASTAGLIONI, COUNTESS— 
Beauchamp's Career: xix. 

RAVALOKE— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: XI, XXIV. 

RAVEJOURA— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: x\aii, XX. 

RAY, LADY— House on the 
Beach: iv. 

REDDISH, LADY EVELINA— 
One of Our Conquerors: xxxv. 



REDNER, MR.— Evan Harring- 
ton: IV. 

VON REDWITZ, CHANCEL- 
LOR — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: xxxiv. * 

VON REDWITZ, II— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: lv, lvi. 

REDWORTH, THOMAS— Diana 
of the Crossways: ii-xviii, xxi, 

XXIII-XXIX, XXXV-XLIII. 

REGNAULT — Adventures of 

Harry Richmond: xxxii. 
REM, CLEMENTINA— One of 

Our Conquerors: xxiii. 
REM, SIR NICHOLAS— One of 

Our Conquerors: xxiii. 
REM, REVEREND STUART— 

One of Our Conquerors: xxiii, 

XXIV, XXIX, XXX, XXXIII, XXXIV. 

REMAUD, FRANK— Evan Har- 
rington: XXVI, XXX, XL. 

DE REMILLA, MARQUIS— 
Evan Harrington: xxi. 

REWKES, DR.— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xxvi, xxix, 

XXX. 

RHODES, ARTHUR— Diana of 
the Crossways: xviii, xix, xxi, 
XXIII, XXV, xx\t:i, xxviii, xxx, 

XXXI, XXXV-XXXVII, XXXIX, XL, 
XLIII. 

RIBSTONE, MRS.— House on 

the Beach: vi, viii. 
RIBSTONE, P H I L I P — see 

SMITH, VAN DIEMEN (II). 

RICCI, ROCCO— Vittoria: Yin, 

XII-XV, XIX-XXI, XXIII, XXVIII, 
XXXVII, XXXVIII. 

RICHARDS, MR.— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: XLiv. 

RICHARDS, MR.— see FEVER- 
EL, RICHARD DORIA. 

RICHMOND, AUGUSTUS FITZ- 
GEORGE ROY— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: i-ix, xiv- 

XVII, XXIX, XXXII-LVI. 

RICHMOND, HARRY LEPEL— 
Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

I-LVI. 

RICHMOND, MARIAN — Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

I-III, IX, XXXVIII, LII. 

RIFFORD, LADY ISABELLA— 
Diana of the Crossways: xxx. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



219 



RIPLEY, SIR PERKINS— Evan 
Harrington: xiii. 

VON RIPPAU, MARGRAVINE 
— Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: xv-xix, XXIV-XXVII, 
XXIX, XXX, XXXIII, XXXIV, XLII, 
XLVIII, LIII, LVI. 

RIPPENGALE— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: iii. 

RIPPENGER, JULIA— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: iv-vi, 
IX, X, xviii-xx, xxiii, xxxvi- 

XXXVIII, XL, XLI, XLV, XLVI, 
XLIX, LIII. LV, LVI. 

RIPPENGER, MR.— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: iv-ix, xii, 

XIII, XVIII. 

RISBONDA, DONA— Evan Har- 
rington: V. 

RIVERS, MELTHUEN— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: vii. 

RIZZO, BARTOLOMMEO— Vit- 
toria: ii, v, vii-x, xii, xv, xvi, 

XVIII, XIX, XXI, XXV, XXIX, XXX, 
XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXVI-XLVI. 

RIZZO, ROSELINA— Vittoria: 

VII, XV, XXIX, XXX, XXXII- 
XXXVI, XL-XLIII. 

ROBERT— Sandra Belloni: xlvii. 

DE LA ROCHE-AIGLE, MA- 
DAME LA COMTESSE— Diana 
of the Crossways: xxx. 

ROCKDEN, LADY— Diana of 
the Crossways: xiv. 

ROFE, SIMON— Diana of the 
Crossways: xx. 

ROLLES, REGINALD— Case of 
General Ople and Lady Camper: 

I-VIII. 

ROMARA, LUCIANO— Vittoria: 

XV-XVIII, XXI, XXII, XXIX-XXXI, 
xxx VI -XLI. 

ROMARIS. PRINCE MARKO 
— Tragic Comedians: i, ii, v, vi, 

XI, XII, XVII-XIX. 

ROMFREY, CRAVEN— Beau- 
champ's Career: ii. iv, xxxvii, 

XXXVIII. 

ROMFREY, EARL I— Beau- 
champ's Career: ii, iv, xxxviii, 

XXXIX, XLI. 

ROMFREY, EARL II— see ROM- 
FREY, HONORABLE EVER- 
ARD. 

ROMFREY, HONORABLE EV- 
ERARD — Beauchamp's Career: 

i-v, X-XIV, XVI-XVIII, XX-XXII, 
XXV, XXVIIT-XXXIX, XLI-XLV, 
XL\aiI-LIV, LVI. 



ROMUALDO— Vittoria: xxi. 

ROOMDROOM — Shaving of 
Shagpat: viii, ix. 

ROSELEY, ADMIRAL — Evan 
Harrington: i, ii. 

ROSELEY, LADY— Evan Har- 
rington: I-III, XIII, XIV, XIX-XXII. 

ROSTRAL, MADAME — Evan 
Harrington: ii. 

ROTHHALS, HENKER— Fari- 
na: III, VII, X-XIII. 

DE ROUAILLOUT, MARQUIS 
RAOUL — Beauchamp's Career: 
VII, VIII, X, XI, xxiii-xxvi, xxx, 

XXXIX, XL, XLII, XLIII, XLV, LV. 

DE ROUAILOUT, MARQUISE 
—see DE CROISNEL, RENEE. 

ROULCHOOK, EBN— Shaving 
of Shagpat: ii. 

RUARK— Shaving of Shagpat: ii. 

RUBREY, FRED— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: xli. 

VON RUDIGER, CLOTILDE 

— Tragic Comedians: Introduc- 
tion: I-XIX. 

VON RUDIGER, GENERAL and 
FRAU — Tragic Comedians: i, 

IV-VI, VIII, IX, XI-XV, XVII, 
XVIII. 

VON RUDIGER, LOTTE— Trag- 
ic Comedians: viii, xii. 

RUDOLFO— Vittoria: xxi. 

RUFO, LEONE— Vittoria: xv, 
XXIX, XXXIII, XXXIV, xxxviii. 

RUFUS, SERJEANT— Diana of 
the Crossways: xxx. 

RUKROOTH— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: II. 

RUNDLES, MISS— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XVII, XXXVII, XL. 

RUNDLES, MR.— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XV, XVII, XIX. 

RUNNINGBROOK. TRACY— 
Sandra Belloni: iv, v, viii, x, 
XXIII, XXV, XXXI, XXXII, xxxiv, 
XXXVIII, XLII-XLIV, XLVI, XLVII, 
LVI -L VIII. 

RUSSETT, EDWARD— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: ii, iii, vi-xxi, 

XXIII, XLVI. 

RUSSETT, JOHN EDWARD— 
Amazing Marriage: xxxv, 

XXXVII, XL, XLII, XLVI. 



220 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



SADDLEBANK. ANDREW — 
Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

V-VIII, XI, LV. 

DE ST. OMBRE, M.— Amazing 
Marriage: x, xxiii, xxiv, xxviii, 

XXXV, XXXIX. 

DE SALDAR, CONDE SENOR 
SILVA DIAZ— Evan Harring- 
ton: III-V, XIV, xix-xxi, xxvii, 
XXX, XL, XLIV, XLVtl. 

DE SALDAR, COUNTESS LOU- 
ISA — Evan Harrington: iii-ix, 

XIII-XXVII, XXIX-XLIV, XLVI, 
XLVII. 

SALLAP — Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXII, XXIII. 

SALLY — Evan Harrington: i, vii. 

SALLY — Evan Harrington: xxvi. 

SALTER, JOHN— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: v-vii. 

SALVOLO — Vittoria: xix, xx. 

SAMPLEMAN, LADY— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: xx, 

XXII, XXVII, XXXIX, XLIII, XLIV, 
LV. 

SAMUEL — Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: XL. 
SAMUELS — Rhoda Fleming: 

XXXI. 

SANDOE, DIAPER— see SOM- 
ERS, DENZIL. 

SANDRA— see BELLONI, EMIL- 
IA ALESSANDRA. 

SANFREDINI, SIGNORA GIU- 
LIA — One of Our Conquerors: 

III, XXIV, XXXVI, XXXIX, XLI. 

SANO, MARCO— Vittoria: i-v, 

XXX, XXXVI, XLI-XLIV, XLVI. 

SARACCO. LUIGI— Vittoria: v, 

VII, VIII, X, XIII-XV, XXVII, 
XXXII, XXXIII, XXXV, XXXVII, 
XXXVIII, XL, XLII, XLV. 

SARPO — Vittoria: xxvii, XL, XLi, 
SATHANAS— Farina: iv, v, viii- 

X, XIV, XV, XVII. 

SCHILL, DIETRICH— Farina: i, 

XIV-XVI. 

SCHLESIEN, DR.— One of Our 
Conquerors: iii, viii, IX, xi, 
xviii-xxi. 

SCHMIDT, BERTHOLD— Fa- 
rina: I, V, VI, XIV, XV. 

SCHMIDT, CUNIGONDE— Fa- 
rina: VI. XV. 



SCHONECK, GENERAL— Vit- 
toria: IX, XXX, XXXII, XXXIII, 
XXXIX, XL. 

SCHWARTZ — Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxiv-xxxi, 

XXXIII, XXXIV, XLVIII, L. 

SCHWEIZERBARTH— Diana of 
the Crossways: xv. 

SCHYLL-WEILINGEN, PRIN- 
CESS OF — see AMALIA, 
DUCHESS. 

SCOTT, JOHN— House on the 
Beach: xii. 

SCROOM, JERRY— One of Our 
Conquerors: xvi. 

SEDGETT, JOHN— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XVII, XVIII. 

SEDGETT, MRS.— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: XVIII, XXXI, XLVI. 

SEDGETT, NICODEMUS — 
Rhoda Fleming: xviii-xxiv, 
xx\ai, xxix-xxxi, XXXIII, xxxv, 

XXXVII-XXXIX, XLI, XLII, XLIV- 
XLVI. 

SEDLEY, MR.— Vittoria: vi, x, 

XIX, XXVIII. 

SEDLEY, MRS.— see POLE, 
ADELA. 

SEDLEY, VISCOUNTESS— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIX, XLI. 

SEGRAVE, COLONEL HIB- 
BERT — Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: XLVii, l. 

DE SEILLES, LOUISE— One of 
Our Conquerors: viii, xi, xiv, 

XV, XVII, XVIII, XX, XXII, XXIV, 
XXVIII, XXX, XXXIII, XXXV, 
XXXIX-XLII. 

SEMHIANS, REVEREND MAN- 
CATE— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: XIX, XXIV, XXVIII, XXXVI, 
XLI. 

SEQUIN, MR.— Rhoda Fleming: 

XL. 

SERABIGLIONE, COUNT— Vit- 
toria: XI, XVIII, XX, XXVIII, 
XXXVI, XXXIX, XLV. 

SERENA, MARCHIONESS OF 
EDBURY — Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: xxvii, xxxix, 

LIV. 

SEWIS, BENJAMIN— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: i, vii- 

IX, XXXVII, XXXVIII, XLII. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



221 



SHAFRAC— Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXI. 

SHAGPAT— Shaving of Shagpat: 
I, in, V, VIII, IX, xi-xiv, XVI- 

XXIV. 

SHAHPESH— Shaving of Shag- 
pat: in, IV, XXI. 

SHAHPUSHAN — Shaving of 
Shagpat: xxii-xxiv. 

SHALDERS, MR.— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: i, ii, v. 

SHALE, LORD-LIEUTENANT 
— Adventures of Harry Rich- 
mond: XLI. 

SHALE, MR. and MRS. MAT- 
THEW— Lord Ormont and His 
Aminta: xxvi. 

SHALE. SUSAN:— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xxvi. 

SHAMSHUREEN SHAH— Shav- 
ing of Shagpat: i, xxiv. 

SHAPLOW, BENJAMIN— One of 
Our Conquerors: x, xvi. 

SHELLEN, T.— Lord Ormont and 
His Aminta: xii. 

SHENKYN — Amazing Marriage: 

SHEPHERD BOY— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xix. 

SHEPSTER, RALPH— Tale of 
Chloe: iv. 

SHERWIN, CLARA — Beau- 
champ's Career: xii, xxix, xxx. 

SHERWIN, GENERAL— Beau- 
champ's Career: xii, xxix. 

SHIMPOR— Shaving of Shagpat: 

I, V, XXII, XXIV. 

SHOOLPI— Shaving of Shagpat: 

I, V, XXIV. 

SHORNE, JULIA— Evan Har- 
rington: XIV, XVII, XVIII, XXIV, 

XXV, XXVII, XXIX-XXXII, XXXVII, 
XL, XLII, XLIII, XLV. 

SHORNE, MR.— Evan Harring- 
ton: XIII, XXIX. 

SHOTTS AND COMPANY, 
BANKERS— One of Our Con- 
querors: XVIII. 

SHRAPNEL, DR.— Beauchamp's 
Career: xi-xiv, xvi, xvii, xix- 

XXII, XXVI-XXXIX, XLII-XLV, 
XLVIII-LVI. 

SHULLUM— Shaving of Shagpat: 

I, V, XXIV. 

SIBLEY, LUCY— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xvi, xxiv, 

XXVI, XXVII, XXXI, XL VI, XLVIII. 



SIEGFRIED— Farina: ii, vi, ix, 

XIII. 

SILLABIN— Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: xxxviii, Liii. 

SIMON— Sandra Belloni: xxv. 

SINGLEBY. LADY— Diana of 
the Cross ways: xiv, xviii, xxvii, 

XXVIII, XXXIX, XLI. 

SKEPSEY, DANIEL— One of 
Our Conquerors: in, iv, ix-xi, 
xv-xix, XXI, XXII, XXIV, xxv, 

XXVII, XXVIII, xxx, XXXI, 

XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXVI, XXXVII, 
XXXIX, XLI, XLII. 

SKEPSEY, MARTHA— One of 
Our Conquerors: x, xv, xxiv, 

xxv, XXVII. 

SKERNE— Evan Harrington: iv. 

SLATER, SIR W^ETON— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIX, XLII, XLVII. 

SMITH, ANNETTE— House on 
the Beach: ii-xii. 

SMITH, SULLIVAN— Diana of 
the Cross ways: ii, in, xi, xiv, 
XVII, xviii, XXI, xxvin-xxx, 

XXXVII XXXIX, XLIII. 

SMITH, VAN DIEMEN (I)— 
House on the Beach: in, vi. 

SMITH, VAN DIEMEN (II)— 
House on the Beach: ii-xi. 

SMITHERS, PETER— Evan Har- 
rington: IX. 

SOCKLEY, MRS.— Evan Har- 
rington: XXVI, XLI. 

SOMERS, DENZIL— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: i, iv, vi, xii, 

xxv, XXVIII, XXXIV, XXXVII, 
XXXVIII. 

SOOLK A— Shaving of Shagpat: 
II. 

SOUTHWEARE, PERCY— One 
of Our Conquerors: xxxii, 

XXXIV, XXXV. 

SOWERBY, COUNTESS— One 
of Our Conquerors: xlii. 

SOWERBY, HONORABLE 
DUDLEY— One of Our Con- 
querors: IV, VIII, IX, XI, xn, 

XIV-XXII, XXIV-XLII. 

SPEED THE PLOUGH— see 

BAKE WELL, TOM. 
SPELLMAN, JOHANN— Vitto- 

ria: xxv, xxvi. 
SPLENDERS, LADY — Evan 

Harrington: ix. 



222 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



STAINES, LADY— Lord Ormont 
and His Aminta: xiii, xv, xxiii. 

STANTON — Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XLIX, LII. 

STOKES, GEORGE— Evan Har- 
rington: X, XI. 

STOKES, LADY RACHEL— 
Adventures of Harry Rich- 
rnond: xxxix. 

STORCHEL, DR.— Tragic Come- 
dians: XIII-XV, XVII, XVIII. 

STRAUSCHER, HERR— One of 
Our Conquerors: xxiv. 

STRIKE, CAROLINE — Evan 
Harrington: iii, v, vii, xiv, 
XVIII, XIX, xxi-xxAa, xxx, 

XXXII, XXXIII, XXXVI-XLIV, 
XLVI, XLVII. 

STRIKE, MAJOR MAXWELL— 
Evan Harrington: iii, v, viii, 
XIV, XVIII, XIX, XXI, xxx, 

XXXVII, XXXIX, XL, XLI. 

STRIKE, MAXWELL II— Evan 
Harrington: v, xliv. 

DE STRODE, COUNTESS— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XLI. 

SUCKLING, LORD — Rhoda 
Fleming: xvi, xxi, xxii, xxvi, 

XXVII, XXIX, XXXI, XXXVIII. 



SUDLEY, COLONEL— One of 
Our Conquerors: xxx, xxxii, 

XXXIII. 

SUMFIT, MRS.— Rhoda Fleming: 

II-IV, VII, IX, XIII, XXIV, XXXIII, 
XXXIX, XLI-XLIII, XLV-XLVII. 

SUMNERS, THE— Sandra Bel- 
loni: II, XVII, xix, xxvii, xxxi, 

XXXII, XLII. 

SUSAN— Rhoda Fleming: xix. 

SWANAGE, LADY— One of Our 
Conquerors: xx, xxi. 

SWEETWINTER, BOB — Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

III, XXXVII, LV. 

SWEETWINTER, MABEL— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

III, XXIII, XXXVII, xxx VIII, 
XLII, LV, LVI. 

SWEETWINTER, MARK— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

III, XXIII, XXXVI, XXXVII, LV. 

SYBILLE. MADAME— Diana of 
the Crossways: xxvii, xxix, 

XXXVI. 

SZEZEDY, COUNTESS — Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIX. 



TAPLOW— One of Our Conquer- 
ors: III, XX. 
TARANI— Sandra Belloni: XLViii. 
TARTINI— Vittoria: xxx. 
TCHEIK— Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXI. 

TELLIO— Diana of the Cross- 
ways: XXVII. 

TEMPLE, GUS— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: v, vi, ix-xx, 
XXIII, XXIV, xxvii, xxviii, xxx, 

XXXII, XXXVI-XXXIX, XL-XLIV, 
XLVII-LI, LIII, LVI. 

TEMPLE, MR.— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xlii, xliv. 

TENBY, MR.— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xlii. 

THEMISON, DR.— One of Our 
Conquerors: xiii, xiv, xvi, 
xviii, xix, XXI, XXII, xxx, 
XXXVI, XXXIX, xl-xlii, 

THIER, SCHWARTZ— Farina: 
in, VII, x-xiv. .,.,.., 



THOMSON, DR. LANYAN— Di- 
ana of the Crossways: xxvi, 

XXVII. 

THOMPSON, LETITIA— Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel: xi, xx^aii, 

XXXII. 

THOMPSON, MR.— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: vii, xi, xvi- 

XVIII, XXII, XXVI, XXXIII. 

THOMPSON, MRS.— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xi. 

THOMPSON, RIPTON— Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel: i-vii, x-xii, 
XVI, XXV, xx\a, xxviii-xxxi, 
XXXIII, xxxv-xxxviii, xli-xlv. 

THRESHER. JOHN— Advent- 
ures of Harry Richmond: in, iv, 

Vll, XI, XXIV, XXXVII, XLIII. 

THRESHER, MARTHA — Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

III, XXIII, XXXVII. 

THRIBBLE— Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: in. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



223 



THWAITES, CORPORAL — 
Rhoda Fleming: xxxii. 

TILES, BOB— Ordeal of Richard 
Feverel; iii-v, xi. 

TIMPAN, MADAME — Sandra 
Belloni: xv. 

TINLEY, ALBERT— Sandra Bel- 
loni: XXXI, XXXVI, XLII, LV, LVI. 

TINLEY, LAURA— Sandra Bel- 
loni: I, III-V, X, XIX, XXI, XXII, 
XXVI, XXXVI, XLII, LV, LVI, 
LVIII. 

TINLEY, MADELINE— Sandra 
Belloni: xlii. 

TINLEY, RALPH— Sandra Bel- 
loni: xxxii. 

TINLEY, ROSE— Sandra Bel- 
loni: XLII. 

TINMAN, MARTIN— House on 
the Beach: i-xi. 

TODDS, BEN— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XV, XVI. 

TODHUNTER, JOHN PEM- 
BERTON— Ordeal of Richard 
Feverel: xxxv, xl. 

TODHUNTER, MRS.— Ordeal of 
Richard Feverel: xxxv. 

TOLLINGBY — Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xliii, xlix, 

LVI. 

TOMBER, SIR UPTON— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: ii. 
TOMKINS— Beauchamp's Career: 



TOMLINSON— Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XIX, XX. 

TONANS, MARCUS— Diana of 
the Crossways: xvii, xviii, xxi, 

XXVII, XXIX, XXXII-XXXVI, 
XXX VIII. 

TOPF, DAME— Farina: ii. 

TRAMP— Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: vi-viii. 

VON TRESTEN, COLONEL 
— Tragic Comedians: ix, x, xii, 
xiii, XV-XVIII. 

TREWINT— Adventures of Har- 
ry Richmond: xxxvii. 

TREWK, NED— Sandra Belloni: 

XI. 

TRIPEHALLOW— Beauchamp's 

Career: xix, xx. 
TUCKHAM, BLACKBURN — 

Beauchamp's Career: iii, xvi, 

XVII, XXAT, XXVIII, XXXII, 
XXXVII, XXXIX, XLII, XLV- 
XL^ail, LI, LIII, LV, LVI. 

TUCKHAM, MRS.— see HAL- 
KETT, CECELIA. 

TUDOR, OWEN— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XXXIV. 

TURBOT, TIMOTHY — Beau- 
champ's Career: xiv, xvi, xix, 

XX, XXII, XXVII. 

TURCKEMS, BARONESS— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXVI, XXVII, XXX, XXXIV-XXXVI, 
XLVIII, L. 



u 



UBERLY— Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: x, xii, xix, xxiii, 

XL, XLVIII, L. 

UKLEET— Shaving of Shagpat: 
II. 

UPLOFT. GEORGE— Evan Har- 
rington: I, XIX-XXII, XXIV, XXV, 
XXVII, XXIX-XXXI, XXXIII, 

XXXVII, XLIII. 



UPLOFT, SQUIRE— Evan Har- 
rington: I, XIII. 

URMSING, BEAVES— One of 
Our Conquerors: ix, xxi, xxii, 

XXXVI, XL, XLI. 

URSEL — Adventures of Harry 

Richmond: xxxv. 
URUISH— Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXIV. 



VAUGHAN, MR.— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XXXIV. 

VEEJRAVOOSH — Shaving of 
Shagpat: xvii-xxi, xxiii. 

DE VILLA FLOR, COUNT— 
Evan Harrington: ix. 

VINCENT, MISS— Lord Ormont 



and His Aminta: i, ii, v, vii, 

XI XII XXX, 

VIsfoCQ, BARON — Rhoda 
Fleming: xxvii. 

VITTORIA— see BELLONI, EM- 
ILIA ALESSANDRA. 

VOLPO, COLONEL— Vittoria: 

XXXIX. 



224 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



W 



WADASTER, LORD— Diana of 
the Crossways: xxx. 

WADDY, MARY— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: ii-iv, xviii, 

XX, XXIII, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLII, 
XLIV, XLIX-LIV. 

WAINSBY — Rhoda Fleming: 

XVIII. 

WALBURG, COUNT — Tragic 
Comedians: viii-x. 

WARD AN, DR.— One of Our Con- 
querors: XXI. 

WARDEN, MR. and MRS.— 
Case of General Ople and Lady 
Camper: ii. 

WARING, MAJOR PERCY— 
Rhoda Fleming: xx, xxii-xxiv, 
XXVI, XXVII, xxx-xxxii, 

XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIV, XLVI, 
XLVIII. 

WARWICK, AUGUSTUS— Di- 
ana of the Crossways: i, ii, iv- 
IX, xiii-xv, xvri, xviii, XXI, 

XXIII-XXV, XXVII, XXIX, XXX, 

XXXVI, XL, XLIII. 

WARWICK, DIANA ANTONIA 
— Diana of the Crossways: 

I -XLII. 

WATER-LADY, THE— Farina: 

XII, XIII. 

WATHIN, CRAMBORNE— Di- 
ana of the Crossways: xiv, xvii, 

XXI, XXIII. 

WATHIN, MRS.— Diana of the 
Crossways: xiv, xvii, xxi, xxiii, 

XXV, XXVII, XXIX, XXXV- 

XXX VII, XLII. 

WATKYN — Amazing Marriage: 

XXXIV. 

WAYTIS, MR.— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XXV. 

WEISSPRIESS, CAPTAIN JO- 
HANN NEPOMUK FREI- 
HERR VON SCHEPPEN- 
HAUSEN— Vittoria: ix, x, xiv, 

XV, XIX, XX, XXII, XXIII, XXVI- 
XXIX. XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXVIII- 
XL, XLV, XLVI. 

WEDDERBURN, SERJEANT— 
Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIX, XLI, XLII. 

WEDGER, TOMMY— Amazing 

Marriage: ii. 
WELBECK— Evan Harrington: 

VII. 



WELSH, CAPTAIN JASPER-^ 

Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

XII-XV, XVII-XIX, XXIX, XLII, 
LIV-LVI. 

WELSH, ROBERT— Adventures 
of Harry Richmond: xiii, xiv. 

WELSHPOOL, LORD— Beau- 
champ's Career: xxxviii. 

WELSHPOOL, COUNTESS — 
Beauchamp's Career: xxxiii. 

WENTWORTH, AUSTIN— Or- 
deal of Richard Feverel: i, ii, 
IV, ^^-xlI, XX, xxv, xxvi, xxxiii, 

XXXIV, XLI, XLII, XLV. 

WENTWORTH, MRS.— Ordeal 

of Richard Feverel: i. 
WERNER, BARON— Farina: ii- 

IV, VI, VII, X-XV. 

WESTLAKE, MR.— Diana of the 
Crossways: xvii, xxiii, xxvii, 
XXVIII, xxx, xxxv. 

WEYBURN, COLONEL SID- 
NEY — Lord Ormont and His 
Aminta: iii, iv, xiv, xxiii. 

WEYBURN, MATTHEW— Lord 
Ormont and His Aminta: i-v, 
VII-IX, xi-xxi, XXIII-XXX. 

WEYBURN, MRS.— Lord Or- 
mont and His Aminta: xiii-xv, 

XVIII, XX, XXVIII. 

W^HEEDLE, MR. and MRS.— 
Evan Harrington: xlv. 

WHEEDLE, POLLY— Evan Har- 
rington: XIII, XIV, xvii, xviii, 

xxv, xxvii, XXXII, XXXV- 
XXXVIII, XLV, XLVII. 

WHEEDLE, SUSAN— Evan Har- 
rington: X, XI, XIII, XVIII, xxv, 

xxx, XXXII, XXXIII, XXXVII, 
XL, XLV. 

WHITFORD. GRACE— Egoist: 

XLIV. 

WHITFORD, MRS. — Egoist: 

XXXVIII. 

WHITFORD, VERNON— Egoist: 

II-XXX, XXXII-XXXIX, XLI-L. 

WHITMONBY— Diana of the 
Crossways: xvii, xviii, xx, xxi, 
XXIII, xxv, xxvii-xxx, XXXIII, 
xxxv. 

WICKLOW, MARY ANN— Rho- 
da Fleming: v, x, xxv. 

WICKLOW, MRS.— Rhoda Flem- 
ing: V, X, xxv. 



IN MEREDITH'S NOVELS 



225 



WILDER, MR. and MRS.— Case 
of General Ople and Lady Cam- 
per: II. 

WILDJOHN, COLONEL— Ego- 
ist: XXXV. 

WILHELM — Vittoria: xxvi, 

XXVII. 

WILKINSON, PERCY— Diana 
of the Crossways: i. 

WILLIAM— Adventures of Harry 
Richmond: vii. 

WILLIAM— Diana of the Cross- 
ways: XXVI. 

WILLIAMS, MONTEREZ— Ad- 
ventures of Harry Richmond: 

XIX, XXXIX, XLVII. 

WILMERS, DORSET— Diana of 
the Crossways: i. 

WILMERS, HENRY— Diana of 
the Crossways: i, xvii, xviii, 

XXIII, XXV, XXVII, XXVIII, XXX. 

W I L M O R E , LIEUTENANT 
JACK — Beauchamp's Career: 

III, XV, XIX, XLII, XLVIII. 

WILSON— Sandra Belloni: ii, vi, 

XI. 

WILSON, MRS.— Sandra Belloni: 

II, XI. 

WILTS, LADY— Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xxi, xxii, 

XXVII. 

WILTS, MOUNTFORD— Diana 
of the Crossways: xxviii. 

AVILTSHIRE, JOHN— Amazing 
Marriage: ii. 

AVINCH. MADGE— Amazing Mar- 
riage: III, XV-XIX, XXII, XXV- 
XXXIII, XXXV-XLVI. 

WINCH, SARAH— Amazing Mar- 
riage: XVIII, XIX, XXI, XXII, XXV, 
XXVIII, XXX, XXXI, XXXV, 
XXXVI, XXXVIII, XLVI. 

WINCH, TOBIAS — Amazing 
Marriage: xviii. 

WINGHAM— Beauchamp's Ca- 
reer: XIX. 

WINKRIED— Farina: ii. 



WINSTANLEY, MRS. GRAF- 
TON — Diana of the Crossways: 

XXVII. 

WINTER, VERA— Beauchamp's 
Career: xxvi. 

WIPPERN, LORD — Rhoda 
Fleming: xxii. 

WISHAW, MARY FENCE— 
Evan Harrington: vii, ix. 

WITLINGTON, EARL OF— 
Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIX, XLII. 

VON WOLFENSTEIN, COUNT 
PRETZEL — Adventures of 
Harry Richmond: xvi, xviii, 

XXX. 

WOLLASLEY, MRS.— Diana of 
the Crossways: xviii. 

WOODSEER, GOWER— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: vi-xi, xvi-xxviii, 

XXX-XLVI. 

WOODSEER, MR. — Amazing 
Marriage: xviii, xix, xxi, xxii, 

XXV, XXXVII, XLI, XLIV. 

WORCESTER, ELIZABETH — 
Tale of Chloe: vii, 

WORRELL, MAJOR— One of 
Our Conquerors: xxviii, xxix, 

XXXII, XXXIII, XXXV, xxxvii- 
XXXIX. 

WORRELL, MRS.— One of Our 

Conquerors: xxviii. 

WRECKHAM, MR. and MRS.— 
Adventures of Harry Richmond: 

XXXIX. 

WROXETER, LORD— Diana of 
the Crossways: iv, xli, xlii. 

WtJRMSER— Vittoria: xxvi. 

WYTHAN, OWAIN— Amazing 
Marriage: xvi, xxvii, xxix-xxx, 

XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXVI, XXXVII, 
XL-XLIII, XLV-XLVII. 

WYTHAN, REBECCA— Amaz- 
ing Marriage: XXVII, XXIX-XXXI, 
XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXVI, XL, XLII, 
XLIII, XLVI, XLVII. 



YATT, DR. PETER— One of Our 
Conquerors: ii, iv, viii, x, xviii, 

XX, XXII, XXXIII. 



YATT, MRS.— One of Our Con- 
querors: XXII, XXXIII, XXXVI. 



226 



A LIST OF CHARACTERS 



ZAK— Shaving of Shagpat: xxii. 
ZARAGAL — Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXIV. 

ZEEL— Shaving of Shagpat: xxi- 

XXIII. 

ZETTLISCH, LIEUTENANT— 

Vittoria: xxii. 
ZOFEL, COLONEL — Vittoria: 

XXVIII, xxix. 

ZOOP, EL— see EL ZOOP. 



ZOORA — Shaving of Shagpat: ii. 
ZOTTI — Vittoria: vixi, xv, xvi, 

XXXV. 

ZRMACK— Shaving of Shagpat: 

XXIV. 

ZUR VAN— Shaving of Shagpat: 
II. 

VON ZWANZIGER— Farina: m. 

ZWITTERWITZ— Vittoria: xxvi. 









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